One Little Difference
by StarCrimson
Summary: What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'. The current rating is T, but that might change depending on how the story goes. Please tell me if there are any continuity errors! :D
1. Chapter 1

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided who yet.**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 1:

_March, 2009_

It was incredibly cold that night. It had been Zack's idea to escape. As cold and as scared as Max was, she couldn't bring herself to regret it. Max was running through the snow. She had lost sight of the others. The ice water that Max had fallen into still chilled her bones as she ran through the forest surrounding Manticore. She could hear the guns blasting from behind her. Max prayed to the Blue Lady that her brothers and sisters made it out alive.

Max was cold and drenched when she finally made it to the main road. She was only in her thin pants and hospital like gown shirt, with bare feet. Luckily, it was impossible for her to catch pneumonia or a cold.

Max saw the lights of a car heading toward her, music blaring from the stereo. The music nearly covered the sound of the helicopters blades chopping through the air. The car came to a sudden stop and Max was temporarily blinded by the head lights. The music from the car was turned down.

"What the hell?" A voice said from inside the car. Max only heard it due to her advanced hearing capabilities.

The passenger side door opened slowly and Max slid into her defensive position, ready for a fight.

"_Don't trust anyone_," Lydecker's voice floated into her mind. "_Civilians cannot be trusted_."

An incredibly tall man with shaggy brown hair stepped out of the car and moved towards her.

He seemed to notice her defensive stance. "Hey, are you okay?" The man asked. Max didn't respond. "Sweetheart? Do you need help? Want us to call the police?"

Max's eyes widened. If the police found her, they would send her straight back to Manticore, and that couldn't happen. "No!" Max said. Surprise flashed across the tall man's face. "No police!"

"Okay, no police then. Look, um, I'm Sam and the other guy in the car is my brother Dean. What's your name?" Sam asked.

"_X5-452_." Her mind whispered. "M-Max." Max replied. By this point, Sam and Dean had noticed the helicopter and sounds of gunfire. Sam and Dean exchanged a look.

"Max? Okay, well, Max? Do you need to get out of here?" Sam asked.

Max looked at them. She considered running from them, but she heard the sounds of soldiers moving closer. Better not risk it. If these two men decided to hurt her, Max calculated how easily it would be to overpower them.

"Yes." Max replied. Sam extended a hand to her.

Sam took in the girl's appearance. Shaved head like a Marine, wearing a hospital gown and some pants, plus she was dripping wet. This girl had gone through something terrible from the look of her.

"Well, hop in then." Sam said, gesturing to the car. "There's a blanket on the seat ."

Max nodded and moved towards the Impala, opening the door and sliding in. Dean started to drive again. Suddenly, the inside of the Impala was lit up with the lights of a car behind them. Max could see that it was a Manticore Humvee, so she slid off the seat and crouched in the foot well, pulling the blanket over her head. This did not go unnoticed by the two men in the front seat.

Luckily, the Humvee passed them by, not even stopping to check if the Impala had an extra occupant. Max slid the blanket off and sat on the seat.

Once they were safely out of the area, Sam turned and looked at Max. Max didn't want to have to answer questions. The first order was, if you were separated from your unit, then Manticore didn't exist. These men couldn't know and would have to be killed if they discovered who she was.

"So, Max. Why were you out there in the snow?" Sam asked.

"I was running away," Max replied, looking out the window.

Sam and Dean glanced at each other. They had heard the gun fire and they had heard the helicopter. The Humvee driving passed the Impala hadn't escaped their notice either. The boys were very suspicious of the whole situation. They had noticed the way Max held herself. Like a soldier. Sam had seen her defensive stance, as if ready to jump straight into combat.

"Running from what?" Dean asked, not taking his eyes off the road. Max had to think of a cover story fast. No way could she trust either of these men.

"My father," Max replied. Yes, that was good. She was running from her horrible abusive father who trained her as a soldier.

"Why?" Sam asked.

"He was mean to me," Max replied. She knew that that sounded pathetic, but she was an 11 year old girl, the two men would most likely believe the story.

"He was mean to you?" Dean asked, frowning.

"Yes. He wouldn't stop." Max replied, still looking out the window. Sam and Dean glanced at each other.

"What do you mean he wouldn't stop?" Dean asked.

"Training me. As a soldier." Max replied. Dean let out an angry sigh, but didn't say anything else.

"Do you know why he was training you?" Sam asked. Dean surveyed Max through the rear view mirror.

"He wants me to join the army when I grow up." Max replied. Max smiled internally. Technically, she wasn't lying. She had escaped because her father AKA Lydecker was training her to become a soldier.

"Is that why you ran away?" Sam asked.

"Yes." Max lied. Sam and Dean knew there was more to this than Max was telling them. You don't send helicopters and soldiers after a single runaway girl.

They didn't say anything for the next few hours. Max knew they were heading east, but not much more than that. She had never left the compound before, so all of this was new to her.

Dean pulled up to a semi-decent looking motel and stopped the car. Dean turned around and faced Max. "Okay, we're gonna bunk down here for the rest of the day. I assume you've had a long night and need sleep. Me'n Sam here are gonna buy you some proper clothes. I'll check us in." Dean said, getting out of the car.

Dean returned shortly after. "Okay, we're in room 206." He said. "Come on."

Max got out of the car, still wrapped up in the blanket, and walked a little ahead of Sam and Dean. Unfortunately, the blanket didn't cover the bar-code at the base of her neck. Sam and Dean saw the bar-code and shared another look.

"Max!" Dean said, throwing the key to Max. She turned just in time and caught it with impossibly fast reflexes.

"Whoa," Sam murmured quietly. Sam and Dean looked at each other, surprised by Max's ability. Max turned and opened the door to their motel room.

The room itself was nice. There were two large queens, a small kitchenette and a bathroom leading off a small sitting area. Sam put the bags down by the door.

"Why don't you take a shower and Dean and I will be back with some clothes. What size are you?" Sam asked.

"Small-medium, sir." Max replied. Sam nodded. He rummaged in his bag and pulled out a large clean pair of boxer shorts and an old t-shirt. He threw the clothes at Max.

"These should do you until we get back." Sam said.

"Yeah, and don't leave the room. Don't wanna lose you." Dean said, walking out of the room.

"Yes, sir." Max replied.

Sam let out a sigh. "You don't have to call us 'sir' you know. Just call us by our names, yeah?" Sam said.

"Yes sir. I mean, yes Sam." Max replied. Sam smiled and shook his head.

"See you in a bit." Sam said, closing the motel door behind him.

Max walked into the bathroom and saw that she was covered in splotches of mud. Max let out a sigh and began to take of her clothes. She got into the shower and stood under its comforting warmth. She couldn't believe it. She'd gotten away. Max got out of the water exactly three minutes after, changing into the clothes Sam had given her.

Max had never worn civies before. It was strange. The fabric didn't itch and it felt soft on her skin. It was early morning, 0700 and Max knew that she couldn't go to sleep. So she moved into the main room of the motel and began to do push-ups, feeling restless with too much energy. Max continued her exercises for half an hour before she started to feel her hands shake. She couldn't breathe as her body began to convulse. Max crawled into the bathroom, needing to feel the cool tile under her body. The convulsions grew worse.

Suddenly, the door to the motel opened and Sam and Dean walked in.

"Max? Where are you?" Sam called.

"Damn, has she bolted?" Dean asked.

Sam thought he heard something and raised his hand for silence and Dean just gave him a bitch face.

A whimpering noise was coming from the bathroom. Sam and Dean looked at each other. Sam moved to the bathroom door and knocked on it.

"Max?" Sam asked, worried. He knocked again. "Max, are you alright?" There was still no answer and the boys were getting worried.

"Okay, we're coming in then." Dean said, moving forward and opening the door.

There was Max, curled up on the floor, shaking violently.

"I think she's having a seizure. Max? Max? Can you hear me?" Sam said, moving towards her, checking her pulse.

"Y-yes!" She said.

"Do you have anyway to stop the seizure?" Sam asked, resting his hand on her shoulder.

"T-tryptophan pills." Max spat out.

"But that's just an amino acid!" Sam said. "Are you deficient?"

Max nodded. "There's something wrong in my brain." She said. Sam turned to Dean.

"You should be able to find some in the chemist down the road." Sam said. Dean nodded and left the bathroom.

"Is there anything I can do?" Sam asked.

"Stay with me." Max whimpered. Sam gripped her hand.

"Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere." Sam replied.

Ten minutes later, Dean was back. He handed Sam the pills and a bottle of water. Sam put the pill in Max's mouth and helped her drink the water. After a minute or two, the tryptophan kicked in and Max stopped convulsing. Her eyes fluttered shut and she fell asleep.

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><p><strong>Okay, what did you think for this first chapter? I hope I managed to write Max okay. Please review! :D<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan or if she does, under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided who yet.**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 2:

"So what do you think?" Dean asked Sam, sitting down at the table.

"What do I think about what?" Sam asked, not looking up from his laptop.

"About Max. About who she is." Dean replied.

Sam closed the lid of his laptop. "Well, her father must be an abusive bastard. Did you see the way she holds herself? Definitely a soldier. I asked her before if she liked the clothes we gave her and if she wanted a toy. She asked what a toy was. I mean, what kind of 11 year old doesn't know what a toy is?" Sam said.

"Do you reckon her father trained her as a soldier from day one?" Dean asked.

"Probably. I feel sorry for the kid. I wonder what he put her through." Sam said.

"Maybe we don't want to know. She'll tell us when she's ready." Dean said. Sam nodded his agreement.

Little did they know that Max was actually awake and heard everything they had just said.

"I just wanna know why the freaking army is after her," Dean said suddenly. "I mean, you saw the Humvees and you saw that helicopter with a search light. She could have just escaped military school for all we know."

Sam rolled his eyes. "I thought you said she'd tell us when she was ready."

"I know, it's just bugging me. But think about it. Military schools don't accept children as young as she is. What about the gun fire we heard? Those were automatic weapons. Sweetheart over there isn't tell us everything." Dean said.

Sam shrugged. "Did you really expect her to? She doesn't know us, she probably doesn't trust us. She's running away. Max is most likely afraid that we'd take her back to wherever she is escaping from. Like you said, she'll tell us when she's ready." Sam replied.

"Yeah I know, I'm just angry. The kid has never had a toy, doesn't even know what it is! She's an 11 year old girl for Christ's sake. She shouldn't have to go through this!" Dean spat. "And who the fuck tattoos a bar-code on the back of a little girl's neck? I mean seriously? It's like she wasn't treated like a human being!"

"Makes me wonder what kind of people could do something like this. Max seems strong though. She'll get through this. We should go back to Bobby's and he can get her fake documents."

Dean sighed. "Yeah, we should." Dean looked over at Max. She could feel his stare on her. "Do you think she might be hungry?"

Sam turned and looked at Max's 'sleeping' form. "Yeah, she's probably starving. One of my friends at Standford had seizures and she was always hungry afterwards. You run out a get some food. I stay here with her." Sam said. Dean nodded and picked up his keys and left the motel.

A few moments later, Max decided it was probably a good time to 'wake-up'. She sat up, pulling the blanket with her.

"Morning sleepy head." Sam said.

"What time is it, sir?" Max asked.

"Max, we've talked about this. Please just call us by our names." Sam said.

"Sorry sir-erm-Sam. What time is it?" Max asked again.

"Six-thirty pm." Sam replied.

"Where did Dean go?" Max asked.

"He's gone out to get food. I hope you like junk food." Sam said with a grin.

"Junk food sir? I mean, Sam?" Max asked.

Sam laughed. "I guess you don't know what that is, huh? It's the kind of food you get for take-a-way outlets. Tasty, but not very healthy." Sam replied.

Max looked confused. "If you know that it isn't very high in nutritional value, then why consume it?" She asked.

Sam looked at her in surprise. "I guess, the need for something fast and tasty kind of overrules logic." Sam replied. Max nodded her understanding.

"We-I mean I- never ate anything like that. Just ration packs." Max replied.

Sam nodded. "So, how often do you have seizures?" Sam asked.

Max paused, unsure if she should answer, not entirely sure she could trust Sam. 'Yes, but they helped you before!' a nagging voice at the back of her head said. "Every now and then. Sometimes they're bad, but sometimes their manageable. The shakes." Max replied. Sam nodded his understanding.

"A friend of mine used to have seizures. She got really hungry afterwards. How hungry are you?" Sam asked.

"Starving." Max replied.

As if on cue, Dean walked back into the motel room, laden down with two large brown paper bags. "I come baring food." Dean announced with a grin that almost made Max smile. Dean reminded her of her brother Ben. They had the same smile.

Max got out of bed, having not changed into the new clothes Sam and Dean had bought her and sat down at the table with a surprising burst of speed. Dean gave Sam a pointed look, but Sam ignored it. Dean started putting food in front of Max and Sam.

"Here's your salad, rabbit!" Dean said.

"Jerk," Sam said.

"Bitch!" Dean said in reply, sitting down at the table. He looked at Max. "Dig in!"

Max looked down at the food in front of her. "What is this?" She asked, her voiced coloured by curiosity.

"It's a beef burger and those are chips. They're made from potato." Dean replied, astonished. "Haven't you had a burger before?"

Max shook her head. Dean shrugged and picked up his burger and bit into it. Max, having never eaten a burger before, mimiced his movements. When Max swallowed the food, she became ravenous, scoffing the food down.

"Hey, whoa, slow down kid! The food isn't gonna run away!" Dean said, resting a hand on her shoulder. Max did as she was told. Sam raised an eyebrow.

"When was the last time you ate?" Sam asked.

Max just shrugged her shoulders, continuing to chow down. Sam looked at Max, pity showing through his eyes.

Max jumped at the sound of a police car going by, and crouched slightly in her chair. Max was still terrified that the police would find her and take her back.

Dean cleared his throat. "So, where'd you get that tattoo on the back of your neck?" Dean said.

Max swallowed her mouthful. "We all had them." Max replied. Suddenly, her eyes widened. She hadn't meant to say that.

"What do you mean, you all had them?" Sam asked, leaning forward.

"My brothers and sisters. I don't know if they all made it out or if it was just me." Max replied.

Sam and Dean stared at each other and then looked at Max. "How many of you decided to run away?" Sam asked.

Max looked down, not meeting Sam and Dean's eyes. "Twelve." She replied in a barely audible voice.

"Twelve?" Dean repeated. "How many brothers and sisters do you have?"

Max paused. "I can't tell you." Max replied. "It's against orders."

"Orders? Sweetheart, you're not a soldier." Sam said softly.

Max rose from her seat. "Yes, I am a soldier. That's what I've been trained for! That's all I know!" Max said, slightly hysterical.

"At ease, soldier!" Dean said, thinking it might be a way to calm her down. Sam gave him a look. Dean just shrugged.

Max instantly calmed down and stood, her arms behind her back and her feet exactly thirteen inches apart.

"Why did you run away, Max?" Dean asked. "Because you didn't like where you were?"

"Yes sir!" Max said.

"You didn't want to follow their orders, right?" Dean asked.

"No sir!" Max said.

"Then you don't have to keep their secrets any more." Dean said.

Max stared at Dean. "No more orders?" Max whispered.

"No more orders." Dean replied gently. "Tell us what you can."

"If they find out I told you, they will kill you." Max said. "And me."

"Kill you? Why?" Sam said, surprised.

"Because of where I come from. I was born on the installation and grew up there, training. No one is supposed to know about it." Max replied.

"Because what? That they're making an army of kids?" Dean said.

"No, because of what we are designed to do. I'm not a real person like you're a real person. I have...abilities." Max replied.

"What kind of abilities?" Dean asked.

"Improved strength, speed. That kind of thing." Max replied.

"How did you get the name Max, by the way? That's a boy's name. Did the people at this installation give you this name?" Sam asked.

"No, we gave each other names. I don't have an official name. My designation is X5-452." Max replied.

"Jesus Christ." Dean muttered.

"Why didn't they give you all proper names?" Sam asked.

"Because I am just one of many. There was no point in giving us names." Max replied.

"No point?" Dean said, stunned. "But you're children!"

Max heard a chopper coming. She moved from her seat to the window impossibly fast. The napkins on the table moved at Max's sudden movement.

"We have to move." Max said.

Sam and Dean looked at each other. "Why?" Sam said.

"They're coming." Max replied.

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><p><strong>They are coming! I love leaving a fic chapter with a ominous ending like that. Anyway, what did you think? Please review, I'll love you forever! :D<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 3:

The Impala was packed up very quickly and after checking out, Sam, Dean and Max were gone.

Max let out a sigh of relief as they pulled away from the motel and continued their path east. A chopper flew overhead.

"Huh," Sam said. "I guess you were right."

"Hey Sam? Are you up for driving the rest of the night? I need some shut eye." Dean said, sliding into the backseat with Max. Dean grinned at her. "Go on, sit in the front."

Max looked at him. "Go on, it's a bit honour!" Sam said with a small laugh.

Max moved into the front seat next to Sam. "It's a nice car." Max said in a small voice.

"Haha!" Dean's voice came from the back seat. "The kid's got taste!" Sam rolled his eyes.

Dean fell asleep not long after.

"How did you escape? If you don't mind me asking?" Sam asked.

Max took a deep breath. Sam was almost sorry asked when Max began to speak. "It was Zack's idea. I was seizing in my bed and the major came in to take me away, but Zack hit him over the head. That's when we decided it was time to go. Zack was, is, our unit leader. We follow him. We made it to the main corridor before we ran into anyone else. There was a guard ahead of us. Eva was on point, she came up behind him and snapped his neck.

By then, the alarm was going off and there were guards coming. Eva picked up the dead lieutenant's gun and held it up to the oncoming guards. We didn't realise it was Lydecker leading this group. He shot Eva. We had to leave her there. I was still weak after my seizure. Jace stayed behind, she didn't want to leave. She was afraid.

We ran into the woods surrounding Manticore. That's the name of the program and the facility we were at. It was Zack's idea to split up. We were safer split apart. I didn't want to, but I had to follow my unit leader's orders. I guess I owe him my life for that.

I don't know how many they killed, I don't even know who else escaped. Jondy and I made it over the perimeter fence. We were running together, but I fell through the ice. She had to keep running or she would have been caught. I had to hold my breath for so long. When the first sweep went by, I had to punch through the ice because I couldn't find the hole I fell through. I was running through the woods and then I found you two when I hit the main road." Max said, not meeting Sam's eye, staring out the window.

Dean held back a gasp from the back seat. He didn't want to alert Max, knowing that she had told Sam all this in confidence.

"Why was the Major coming to get you?" Sam asked.

"Because I was seizing. X5's have to be perfect. They took Jack when he began to have the shakes. I never saw him again." Max replied. "Seizures are a sign of weakness as well as emotion. X5's are not supposed to have weaknesses. I am defective."

Sam stared at her. "Of course you're not defective! You're an 11 year old girl! A human girl! Having emotion is a part of being human." Sam said.

"I am a soldier. That's what I was trained for. My age and gender are irrelevant." Max replied.

Sam shook his head. "Well, you're not a soldier any more." Sam replied. "You deserve to have a life."

Max looked up and caught his eye. "This is the only life I know." She whispered. The look in her eyes broke Sam's heart.

* * *

><p>Soon they were crossing the border into South Dakota and the sun was rising. It was 0600 hours when Max opened her eyes.<p>

"You can go back to sleep you know." Dean said from the drivers seat. Sometime in the night, Sam and Dean must have swapped, since Sam was quietly snoring on the backseat.

"I can't. I don't need much sleep. Besides, I've been getting up at 0600 my whole life. Just because I'm no longer at Manticore, doesn't mean everything about me has got to change." Max replied.

"Hey, about Manticore, I heard you and Sammy talking last night, I hope you don't mind." Dean said as politely as possible.

Max shook her head. "It's fine. At least I don't have to tell the story twice." She replied.

Dean nodded his understanding. "What kind of training did you do at Manticore?" He asked.

Max blinked. "Lots of different things. Hand-to-hand combat, weapons training, tactics and evasion, espionage and infiltration, how to extract information, both with force, like torture or without force, like seduction. They worked on our tolerance to things. Like starvation, dehydration, resistance to pain and our lung capacity." Max replied without taking a breath.

"Whoa, that's a lot for a kid." Dean replied. 'Torture? Seduction? What the fuck?' Dean thought to himself.

"I'm not just a 'kid' you know." Max said sharply.

"Yeah, yeah. You're a kid with abilities." Dean said.

Max rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever." She replied.

Dean raised his eyebrows at her. For once, she was getting snarky. He smiled, glad she was beginning to get out of the habit of forced obedience.

"How did they make your tolerance grow? Towards things like that?" Dean asked.

"By making us go through it. I lost my sister Elle to starvation, my brother James to blood loss and my brother Mike to drowning." Max replied.

Dean was shocked. She had watched children die under extreme circumstances. It was almost beyond belief. "How long can you go with out eating?" He asked.

"A while." Max replied after a moment, staring out the window. They were silent after that.

* * *

><p>It was 10 o'clock by the time Dean stopped at a diner and grabbed some take-out breakfast for everyone before getting back into the Impala and continuing, this time south east.<p>

"The sooner we get to Bobby's, the better." Dean said. Sam agreed. Max didn't say anything.

"Hey. How long has that car been following us?" Sam asked. Dean turned.

"Not long? Why?" Dean asked.

"Government plates. They're a little close, don't you think?" Sam asked.

"Yep, okay, turning off the main road." Dean said. Sure enough, the car followed them.

"Pull over." Max said.

Dean stared at her. "What?"

Max turned to Dean. "Are we far enough away from your friend, Bobby's place?" She asked.

"Yeah, not for about 2 or 3 hours." Dean replied.

"Then pull over." Max replied.

"No, they'll take you." Dean said, shocked.

"There are only two of them. They won't be able to take me." Max replied. Sam stared at Max, just as surprised as Dean. Max rolled her eyes. She unbuckled her seat belt, opened the door to the Impala and jumped out. Dean must have been going 70km per hour and the way Max just got out of the Impala and stood up again, they could have been going 10km per hour. Sam and Dean looked at each other in surprise.

Dean slammed on the breaks and so did the government car behind them.

The two agents stepped out of the car, both of them holding Glocks. Sam and Dean stopped as well, coming up behind her with their guns.

"Come with us sweetheart and no one will get hurt." One of the men said.

"Come with us sweetheart and no one will get hurt." Max said, her voice replicating his exactly. All the men present were shocked.

"Fall back." Max whispered to Sam and Dean. "Or you're gonna get shot."

Max grinned at the two agents. They began firing their weapons. Max moved with super-human speed, dodging their bullets. She grabbed one of the agent's hands, still holding the gun, lifting it into the air, she punched him in the face with her other hand and used the agent's gun, still grasped in her and the agent's hand, to shoot his partner. Max then twisted around, stood behind the agent and snapped his neck.

Sam and Dean were frozen. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. She didn't meet their eyes as she moved to the car and picked up the radio.

"Hi, yeah, this is unit 17 over," Max said in an exact replica of the voice of the man she just killed. "There is no way any of the X5's made it out this far. We're gonna turn back and scout out some of the area closer to base."

"That is approved, unit 17. Over." Came a staticy voice.

"Roger, over and out." Max said. She walked over to Sam and Dean.

They were both still staring at her in shock. "Are you both gonna keep staring at me like I'm a monster, or are you gonna help me hide this car and get rid of the bodies?" Max asked.

Sam blinked. "Uh, yeah, okay." Sam said hesitantly. It was a shocking realisation to discover that this young girl could kill the both of them without breaking a sweat.

Sam and Dean picked up one body and Max picked up the other and put them in the front seat of the car. They rolled the car into the ditch. Max moved to the back of the car and shut off the tracking device. She then removed both sets of plates.

"Do you have a handkerchief? I need to wipe down the prints." Max said in a monotone voice.

Dean gave her his wordlessly and Max began to wipe down the car. The Winchesters' helped Max cover the car with branches and whatever else they could find.

"We need to get out of here." Max said. The boys nodded and they all piled back into the Impala.

They were silent at first. "I hate killing." Max whispered. Dean and Sam looked at each other.

"Have you killed before?" Sam asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Yes," Max replied weakly, as if she was ashamed. "As part of a training exercise. He was on death row anyway. Lydecker said it was a way to weed out the weak ones. We all participated. We had to hunt him through the woods and kill him. None of us wanted to be taken away to be re-programed or to be sent of to the nomalies."

"Re-programmed?" Dean asked. "Who the fuck are these people?"

Sam gave him a look that said 'don't swear in front of the kid!'. "That sounds horrible. Have you ever been reprogrammed?" Sam asked her.

"No, but I have an idea what it feels like. I know what it feels like to be unmade." Max replied. Sam and Dean didn't say anything after that.

Dean was thinking about the things that Max had told him about before, about how they were taught to build up tolerances. Did this mean that Max had been tortured so she wouldn't feel it or react to it anymore? How much had she gone through to survive? Dean guessed, never having been tortured before, that it would feel like being unmade.

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><p><strong>Well, this chapter was a bit heavier than the last. We've found out more about Max's abilities and what she's gone through. How do you think Sam and Dean will react to when they find out everything about Max? And how will Bobby react to Max? Read on, and please review! :D<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.**

**I haven't decided whether Ben is going to go all psycho loony and whether or not to bring Alec into the story eventually. Maybe I could make Ben and Alec the same person? I really haven't decided yet. Tell me what you think?**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

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><p><span><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 4:

They arrived at Bobby's house in the late afternoon. Max stepped out of the Impala, grabbing the little bag of clothes that Sam and Dean had bought her as she got out.

Bobby came out to meet them. He kept his distance from Max, not wanting to spook her.

After a quick greeting with Sam and Dean, Bobby turned to Max.

"Hello there," Said Bobby. "I'm Bobby. You're Max?"

Max immediately stepped into the position of attention. "Yes, sir!" Max replied.

"Don't 'sir' me! I work for a livin'! At ease girl!" Bobby said. Max moved instantly to at ease. "Well come inside!"

Dean grinned and picked up his bags as did Sam and the three of them followed Bobby inside.

When the got inside, Max automatically marked the exists and entrances into the house on this floor. Upstairs needed further scouting. Max put her bag down when Sam and Dean did.

"Well, sit down!" Bobby said to Max. She dropped into the seat at the kitchen table instantaneously. Bobby rolled his eyes. Max did not feel comfortable in this situation.

"Now, I've got to get you some new ident. Is there any particular name that you want? Officially, you shouldn't go by 'Max', especially if whoever you're running from knows that's your name. So, pick one." Bobby said.

"Hold on there Bobby," Dean said. "If she gonna be staying here with us for a while, how are we gonna explain her to anyone who decides to drop by?"

Bobby rolled his eyes. "She'll be my niece. My brother's daughter." Bobby replied.

Dean nodded. "Okay then, last name Singer," Dean said. He turned to Max. "We'll still call you Max in private, but you need a new first name."

Max looked up, as if pondering it for a moment. "Eva," She said finally. "I want to be Eva."

Dean thumped his arm against he table and grinned. "Eva Singer it is!" Bobby rolled his eyes again. He turned to Max.

"Welcome to the family, Max." Bobby said, smiling at her slightly.

"Thank you," Max replied, not really sure of how to reply. Max was hungry, but she didn't want to say anything about it though. It still felt wrong to be able to talk out of turn like Sam and Dean and now Bobby were telling her to.

The silence became awkward. Sam cleared his throat. "So, Max, do you wanna go and get changed and then we'll get something to eat?" Sam asked.

Max nodded her agreement. "They're is a room up the staircase, third door on the left that you can use to get changed. If you want, that can be your room." Bobby said.

Max looked up and her eyes widened with surprise. "I get my own room?" She whispered.

Bobby frowned. "Yeah. Why not? Did you think someone would be sharing with you?" Bobby asked.

Max just shrugged. "Not used to having my own room is all." Max replied. She picked up her bag and made her way upstairs.

Bobby turned to the boys. "Well, you weren't kidding. She has definitely been institutionalized. Shaved head like a Marine, tattoo on the back of the neck. Raised like a soldier and treated like cattle." Bobby said, shaking his head in disgust.

Sam shook his head angrily. "Who the fuck does this to a child? Who the fuck tattoos a bar-code like that on the back of a HUMAN's neck? Who the fuck does this?" Sam said, surprising them all with his sudden out burst. "You know what she told me before? The used to strap them down at the bottom of a tank and then fill the tank to the top. It was to strengthen their lung capacity! They would time to see how long they could hold their breath for. She told me the longest they made them go under for was four minutes! Four minutes to try and not suffocate and drown! They're fucking monsters!"

Bobby rested a hand on Sam's shoulder. "Calm down boy. It does no good to get frustrated about something like this." He said.

Sam shook off Bobby's hand. "Why the fuck not? They tortured her! Trying to make her a better soldier! She thinks because she has some sort of epilepsy and because she has emotions, she's somehow defective." Sam said, continuing his rant.

"Calm down boy!" Bobby scolded.

"And another thing!" Sam said, his voice trembling with badly withheld rage. "Do you know where she got the name Eva? It was her sister's name. She was shot and left for dead when Max and the rest of her unit were trying to escape!" Sam took a deep breath.

"We need to shut these people down." He said in a scarily calm voice. Bobby managed to get Sam to sit down.

"We'll do what we can Sam. I'll make some calls. This is a government thing and they generally keep to themselves, but maybe I can get some info on them. What was the name of the guy running this joint?" Bobby asked.

"Lydecker." Said Max, walking back into the room, dressed in the new clothes Sam and Dean bought her. A pair of faded blue jeans and a light blue t-shirt.

Bobby was about to say something else, but Max cut him off by raising her hand. "As far as the choice of my name goes, Eva was one of my best friends and my sister. I just wanted to honour her by taking her name. I don't think she would mind." Max said.

"You heard all that?" Sam asked.

"Well, I have really good hearing. Besides, you weren't exactly quiet." Max replied, the ghost of a smile on her face. Dean snorted.

"Do you really think that it is possible? To shut down Manticore?" She asked meekly.

Bobby shrugged. "Well, I don't know. At the moment, I would say it was impossible." Bobby replied.

Max almost smiled again. "Things are only impossible until they're not." Max replied.

They fell silent. Max glanced around the library and saw all the books and knives and guns scattered around the place.

"What's with all the weapons?" Max asked, picking a machete off the desk.

"Why don't you put that down." Bobby said, as if afraid she was going to start swinging it.

Max raised an eyebrow, but put the weapon down. "We're hunters." Dean said.

"Hunters of what?" Max said. Sam and Dean glanced at each other.

After a moment of silent agreement amongst the three hunters, Sam spoke up. "Monsters."

Max was silent for a moment. "What kind of monsters?" She asked.

"Ones out of mythology. Ghosts, demons, shapeshifters, vampires, werewolves." Dean replied.

"Oh." Max replied.

"Oh? That's all you've got to say? Oh? Shouldn't you be saying, these guys are crazy, they hunt monsters!" Dean said, surprised.

Max looked up and stared at Dean, directly in the eye. "I have seen monsters before." Max replied ominously. The three men looked at each other.

"What kind of monsters?" Sam asked.

"We call them nomalies. Ben always used to tell stories about the Good Place and the Bad Place and the Bad Place is where the nomalies are." Max replied.

Dean frowned. "What are 'nomalies' exactly?" He asked.

"Wait! Nomalies? Do you mean anomalies?" Sam asked.

Max shrugged. "They're the transgenics and cisgenics that went wrong. Like Jack. Like me. The shakes are a symptom of becoming a nomaly. Almost all of us have them. Another defect in the X5 range." Max replied.

"Um, what's the difference between transgenics and cisgenics?" Dean said.

"Transgenics are when you put genetic material from another species and add it to a host. Like me, I have different non-human RNA in my DNA. Cisgenics are when you use genetic material from a subject of the same species as the host." Max replied instantly.

The three hunters looked at each other. "What kind of DNA do you have?" Sam asked slowly.

Max shrugged. "Lots," She replied. "Some X5's respond to the cocktail differently, so they have different species."

"So, you're not entirely human?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow.

Max paused for a moment. "We are taught genetics on top of our field training. We are taught that it is always best to learn about ourselves and harness to our strengths and suppress our weaknesses before we try to control, understand or defeat our enemies," Max began. "Basically, all the base pairs in my genetic code are human. It's the nucleotides that they fuse into my DNA on top of those base pairs that alter the way I grow and behave."

Dean raised his hands up. "This way over my head." He said, staring at Max.

"No no, I kinda understand," Sam said. "They would have to do all of this in a test tube?"

Max nodded. "They encode the embryo with the RNA patterns they want before they artificially inseminate the mothers." Max replied.

"Is anyone else weirded out about this? Especially out of the mouth of an 11 year old?" Dean said, trying to hold back his freak out.

"I am designed to be the perfect soldier," Max said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I am supposed to have extremely high intelligence and follow orders."

Dean let out a huff of air. Sam stood up. "I'm gonna go to the library and do some research on this." Sam said. Bobby nodded.

"I'll come with you. I need to make some phone calls I'd prefer not to do in the house." Bobby said.

"Be back in a couple of hours." Sam said, following after Bobby.

"Bring back some food then!" Dean called after them.

"Yeah yeah!" Dean heard Sam shout faintly. Dean shook his head in amusement.

Dean turned to Max. "What were those stories that your brother Ben told you? About the Good Place and the Bad Place?" Dean asked curiously.

Max walked over to the couch and sat down, almost seeming to snuggle down a bit.

"One night, Ben was seizing and we were at his bedside after lights out, trying to calm him down." Max began as Dean listen patiently. "We heard someone open the door to the barracks, so we rushed back to our beds. It was just the cleaner. We were afraid that the Major had come to take Ben away. The cleaner saw Ben fitting and gave him a picture of a woman in blue with a white shawl over her head. There was a heart on her chest and it was on fire, with a knife sticking in it. We call her the Blue Lady."

Dean frowned. "Mary? As in Jesus's mother?" Dean thought to himself.

"The cleaner told Ben to pray to her," Max continued. "Ben told us stories of the Good Place, where good soldiers go after leading a courageous life. Where the perfect soldiers went. No one to yell at us and where no one disappears, like Jack did."

"What about the Bad Place?" Dean asked. What Max described seemed to be a child soldier's idea of Heaven if they had never encountered religion before. Dean wasn't surprised that they had dreamed of a happier life.

"The Bad Place is where the bad soldiers go. The ones who are defective. They're taken away to the basement where the nomalies are. They'll kill you slowly, forever." Max replied, a hint of fear in her voice. Dean supposed this was also their idea of Hell.

"Have you seen these nomalies before?" Dean asked.

Max shook her head. "No, but I know they exist. We can hear them screaming at night. They give me nightmares." Max replied, her voice full of shame. "A good soldier shouldn't have nightmares."

Dean rested a hand comfortingly on Max's shoulder. "You're still a human being. All humans have weaknesses. Besides, nightmares are just a sign of your strength. Understanding your fears make you stronger." Dean said, trying to get his meaning across.

Max just nodded sadly. They were silent for a few more moments. Max reached up and scratched her head. "I am never going to cut my hair when it starts growing out. Never." She whispered.

Dean smiled sadly at the girl. "You don't have to." Dean replied.

Max looked up at Dean and smiled. It was a small one, and it was only there for a brief second, but it happened. Dean pulled Max into a small hug. Max's body froze, not understanding what was happening. Dean pulled away.

"What was that?" Max asked. Dean stared at her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Have you never had a hug before?" Dean asked, his voice weak with shock.

"What's a hug?" Max asked. Dean continued to stare wide eyed at Max.

"Have you never been held before?" Dean whispered.

"What do you mean?" Max asked, incredibly confused.

Dean blinked a few times. "Well, uh, what I just gave you, was a hug. I wrap my arms around you and you wrap you arms around me. It's a way for expressing, um, affection or erm, comfort." Dean replied.

Max nodded. "Oh, okay." Max replied.

Not long after, Sam and Bobby arrived back, this time with something they called pizza. From what Max could tell was that it was a bread with some sort of melted cheese and meat products put on top and something called tomato paste.

Max was surprised at how good it tasted. She had been a bit reluctant at first, but decided she enjoyed it immensely.

Sam grinned at Max as she attempted to eat the cheese covered bread. Finally she got the hang of it. And she smiled again, this time Bobby and Sam saw it.

Soon it was coming onto 2100 and Max declared she had to go to sleep, as it would be lights out at 2115. Dean smiled at her.

"Alright, go to sleep then sweetheart. See you in the morning." Dean had said.

Max changed into the clothes Sam had given her when they had first brought her back to the motel. She decided they would be her sleep wear. For once in her entire life, Max felt free and she wasn't afraid. Well, mostly unafraid. She was still worried about the police or Lydecker finding her and taking her back to Manticore.

Max rolled over in the bed she was attempting to sleep on. It was too soft. She felt like she was being suffocated by the blankets and pillows. After letting out a huff of frustration, Max laid an sheet down on the floor, grabbed the flattest pillow and a blanket, and curled up to sleep on the hardwood floor.

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><p><strong>So, the end of another chapter. I really want Max to adjust and have a happy life.. Whether that is to be or not..? Well, keep reading and you'll find out! :D<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.**

**I haven't decided whether Ben is going to go all psycho loony and whether or not to bring Alec into the story eventually. Maybe I could make Ben and Alec the same person? I really haven't decided yet. Tell me what you think?**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 5:

Dean had gotten up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. After he had finished his business, he opened Max's door, just to check on her and to see if she was seizing. Dean was surprised to see Max sleeping on the floor of the bedroom, with just a blanket or two on her and a pillow. Dean didn't really want to wake her up by putting her back to bed. He would have to remember to ask her about this in the morning.

Max woke up at 0600 on the dot and changed into a pair of shorts and the same blue t-shirt she was wearing yesterday. She crept down stairs and pushed open the door. Sam had fallen asleep at his laptop on the couch the night before and was woken up by Max walking out the back door into the car lot. Sam got up and stood by the door to see where Max had gone.

Max had woken up feeling restless and had decided to work out, as was par for the course at this time of day. A lot of the time, she would get up at 0500 and go on a 5 mile march before working on her other skills, but these last few days had messed up her bodily schedule, making her sleep in longer than she would have liked.

Max started off by doing a few warm ups and stretches before taking off and doing several laps of the car yard. After that, she began to do push ups, and then one armed push ups. All the drill Max did impressed Sam to no end. It wasn't until Max began to work on her combat movements did Sam make his presence know by stepping outside.

"Maybe tomorrow, we can run together?" Sam asked, approaching her slowly.

Max smiled slightly. "I plan on going for another run after this as a warm down if you want to join me?" Max asked.

Sam smiled. "Just let me get changed into my running gear and we'll run." Sam looked down and realised that Max wan't wearing shoes.

"Max, why aren't you wearing shoes?" Sam asked.

Max shrugged. "I don't have any besides those sandals you bought me, so I just decided to do this barefoot." Max replied.

Sam sighed. "Okay, today, we're going into town and I'm buying you some more clothes." Sam said.

"Thank you, Sam." Max replied. Sam nodded in reply before heading back inside.

A few moments later, Sam returned, wearing his running clothes and shoes.

"Why don't you go for a jog? I still have some drills to do." Max said.

"Sure." Sam replied and he set off at a job, doing two laps around the yard.

Max was done by the time Sam had come back. "Ready?" She asked.

Sam grinned. "As I'll ever be." He replied.

Max smiled, a bigger one this time. "Let's say the first one back to the house wins, after three laps?" Max asked.

Sam chuckled. "You're on!" Sam replied, crouching into position.

"I'm not going to hold back." Max warned.

"I don't want you to. If you don't mind, I wanna see what you can do." Sam replied.

By this point, Dean had made his way down stairs and saw Sam and Max about to race. He let out a hearty chuckle.

"Hey Sam! If she beats you, I'll never let you live it down!" Dean called, walking outside.

"Yeah yeah!" Sam replied.

"Ready?" Max began. "Set? GO!" Max shouted, and they both took off. Max turned her head and looked up at Sam, easily keeping pace with the taller man. She winked before looking forward again. In a blink of an eye, she was gone.

Well, not gone, just a lot further ahead. "God! She's fast!" Sam thought to himself. A few seconds later, Sam felt a rush of wind and saw Max lap him. There was no way he was going to beat her. He finished the first lap by the time she lapped him for the second time, now on her third lap.

Dean was laughing so hard as Sam came up to them, just finishing the third lap. Let's just say, Max had beaten him.

"Haha, you win!" Sam said.

"Aw, don't be a sore loser Sammy! What kind of example does that give Max?" Dean teased.

"Thanks for the race, Sam," Max said softly. "It was fun." A smile graced her face.

Max looked up at both men. "Do you want to spar? I need to practice." Max said.

Sam chuckled grimly. "I'm about to get my ass kicked, aren't I?" Sam said weakly. Dean chuckled evily.

"Yup!" He said. Max grinned and pulled the two men to their feet.

She turned to them "Even with the two of you, this still isn't a fair fight!" Max said, grinning.

Dean smirked at Sam. They had both noticed how much Max had brightened up. "Oh yeah? Are you sure you can beat us?" Dean asked, resting a hand on Max's shoulder.

Max smirked in reply, easily flipping him to the ground. "Yep!" Dean wheezed. "She can definitely beat us!"

Sam laughed loudly and Max even chuckled.

"I don't think sparring would be a good idea, especially with the both of you being so under trained." Max said.

"Hey!" Dean said, struggling to get up. "We're trained! Well.. maybe not quite up to your standard."

Max smiled softly. "I suppose I could train you." Max said.

"Hey Max," Sam begun.

"Yes?" She replied, turning to him.

"Have you ever thought about what you might want to do when you grow up?" Sam asked.

Max frowned. "I never really thought about it. I Just thought I was going to be a Manticore soldier. My whole life was training." Max replied.

"Well, what about school?" Sam asked.

"School?" Max asked.

"Well, yeah. It's a place where children go to learn things." Sam said.

Max frowned. "I don't think that would be a good idea. I have a near genius level of intelligence. If I went to school, I might find it too easy and I might be recognized. Besides, Manticore is probably looking into enrollments at local schools for people of my age and appearance." Max replied.

Dean shrugged. "She's got a point you know." Dean remarked.

"It's just... In this world, if you wanna do anything, like be a doctor or a teacher or a lawyer, you have to go to school and get a 'proper' education," Sam said. "I thought it might be a good idea for you to have your options open if you wanted to do something like that with your life. To give you a chance for you to be whatever you want to be."

Max smiled. "I'm not really interested in any of that. Maybe it's because of how I was trained or designed, but I think I still want to be a soldier. Just not Manticore's." Max said. She walked over to Sam and rested a hand on his elbow since she was too short to reach his shoulder. "Thank you for thinking about what I might want though."

Sam smiled. "No problem. I just want what's best for you." Sam replied.

Dean groaned from the ground behind them. "Please! No more chick-flick moments!" Dean said.

Sam rolled his eyes, but Max, somehow understanding what Dean meant by 'chick-flick moment', laughed. It may have been a short one, more of a giggle, but it happened. Max seemed surprised herself. She had never laughed before, not in living memory. She turned to Sam.

"What was that?" She asked.

Sam frowned. "You laughed." Sam replied.

Max paused. "Oh," She said, genuinely surprised. "I've never done that before."

Sam and Dean looked at each other. "What do you mean? You've never laughed before?" Dean said.

"No. I've had no reason to before," She said. She looked at both men. "Thank you." She added, before walking back inside.

"That poor kid." Dean said. "Never even laughed before. I really hate Manticore."

"Same here." Sam replied.

A few moments later, Bobby came outside. "Morning boys. I've got some news for you." He said.

"What is it?" Dean asked.

"One of my contacts got back to me. Apparently, the government has been doing some very strange things." Bobby said.

"Like what?" Sam asked.

"Well, one hunter I know said that when she was in the middle of a hunt, two units of soldiers came and took four vampires from the nest she was scouting. I got another hit of soldiers taking a small werewolf pack as well." Bobby said.

Sam and Dean looked at each other. "You don't think that they're experimenting with real monsters do you?" Sam asked.

"I don't know what they're doing, but I doubt it's any good." Bobby replied.

Max came back down stairs, this time in a clean shirt and her jeans. "Real monsters? Like the ones you hunt?" Max asked.

"Yup. Did you see anything like that when you were at Manticore?" Bobby asked her.

"No sir. We rarely saw other units. I have no idea what kind of experiments they could be doing." Max replied.

"Well, in the mean time, assuming you don't want to go to a real school Max, what with Manticore on your ass and that tattoo on your neck, I can train you to be a hunter." Bobby said.

Max tilted her head. "To be a hunter, like you and Sam and Dean?" Max asked.

"That's the general idea, yes." Bobby replied.

"Okay." Max answered. "I would be interested in learning."

"Fine. We'll start with the books in the library." Bobby said.

Over the next two week, Bobby taught Max everything there was to be a hunter and Max caught on fast. She learned to speak fluent and perfect latin in two days. Bobby was more than happy with her progress.

"What of your weapons skills?" Bobby asked her one afternoon when they were taking a short break, even when Max insisted that she didn't really need one.

"I can assemble an M16 blindfolded and I am a fully qualified sniper." Max replied.

"Not bad. We'll go out back and you can show me some of your skills. I just need to know for if and when we go into the field together." Bobby said. Max smiled softly.

"Sure." Max replied. The boys came out to watch and Max was impressed with their gun skills, particularly with their aim. "You guys are good." Max said. Her speech was changing to match how the boys spoke, as she became more relaxed around them.

"Aw, yeah? What about you?" Dean asked her. He chucked her a hand gun. She smirked at him. Without even looking at the target the was directly behind her at about 30 yards, her eyes focused on Dean's, she lifted the gun up and shot the the target dead on four times.

Sam let out a whistle. "Wow." He said, only his eyes betraying his surprise.

Dean let out a slightly shocked laugh. "Remind me not to get on your bad side." Dean said. Max grinned at him.

Suddenly, Max dropped the gun, her entire body shaking as she fell to her knees, the seizure over coming her. Dean ran over to her and held her in his arms.

"Sam! Get the tryptophan!" Dean yelled. Sam was back a few moments later with the pills and a glass of water. Dean helped Max swallow the pill and held her until the convulsions stopped.

Max let out a sigh. "Two weeks and three days since my last seizure." Max murmured. "What a great birthday present."

"It's your birthday?" Sam asked.

Max shrugged. "Well, today is the day that we have our exams. We used it to mark how long we had been alive. It's our 12th exam today." Max replied.

Sam grinned. "What did you do on your birthday last year?" Sam asked.

Max's smile fell from her face. "I killed a man." Max replied.

The three men looked at each other. "What do you mean, you killed a man? Was it part of your exam?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I told you about it before. That man that was on death row. We had to hunt him down and kill him, so Lydecker could test our progress in the field." Max replied in a monotone voice. "I hate killing people, even if they deserve it."

"Well, why don't we give you a happy birthday this year, huh?" Dean asked.

"What is one supposed to do on their birthday?" Max asked.

"Generally, they get presents, have cake and do something fun." Dean replied.

A small smile came onto Max's face. "I've never had cake before, or presents." Max said.

Dean grinned. "Well, you're gonna get them now!" Dean said.

Sam and Bobby went into the house ahead of them and Dean helped Max to her feet.

"Max, I hope you don't mind me asking, but I was wondering, why do you sleep on the floor?" Dean asked her.

Max paused for a moment, seeming to ponder her answer. "The bed is too soft." Max replied finally. "I'm used to sleeping on a cot or on the ground. The bed.. it feels like I'm being smothered."

Dean considered this for a moment. "We could buy you a more solid mattress or a thin foam bed, you know, if it helps you sleep better." Dean replied.

Max shrugged. "I don't mind sleeping on the floor. I don't sleep much anyway." Max said, but then she smiled softly. "It must be my shark DNA."

Dean chuckled. That was the first joke Max had ever told.

"Well, if you're sure." Dean said. Max nodded.

They decided, since it was so late in the day, that they would celebrate Max's birthday the next day.

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><p><strong>A friend of mine was in Afghanistan and after spending so long sleeping on cots and the ground and on other hard surfaces, he found it strange to sleep on his bed when he got home. That's where I got the idea of Max being uncomfortable on the soft bed that Bobby provided.<strong>

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review and keep reading if you're enjoying it.**


	6. Chapter 6

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.**

**I have decided that Ben will exist, but he won't be psycho. He'll have more Alec's personality, except his relationship with Max will be infinitely better. Plus he will be guided away from the crazy by Sam and Dean.  
><strong>

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 6:

It was the first time Max had had a nightmare since leaving the Manticore facility. She was dreaming about the torture that Lydecker had put her through, teaching her how to forget and how to remember. Dean was walking past Max's room on his way back from his nightly trip to the bathroom when he heard Max's whimpering.

"_No one can resist torture indefinitely—not even you. The mind is infinitely pliable. You will reveal what you know.__Memories can be buried...obfuscated. You can learn to forget what you know. Your own name...your own bar-code number... by deliberately flooding your mind with disinformation. You can so confuse your memory that you can't reveal the truth_." Lydecker's voice said, her mind overlapping his voice with the torture she was dreaming about.

Dean opened Max's door and walked inside. She was twitching on the sheets she was curled up in. Dean sat next to her on the floor and stroked her hair. Max woke up instantly, grabbing his hand, her eyes wide.

"Dean?" She whispered.

"Yeah, it's me sweetheart." Dean replied. Suddenly, Max burst into tears. Dean pulled her into his arms. "It's okay, honey, it's okay." Dean murmured into her hair, kissing the top her her head softly as Max sobbed into his arms.

"What am I doing?" She whispered when she pulled back from him slightly. "My face is wet."

Dean sighed. "You're crying sweetheart." Dean replied. "It happens when your emotions become incredibly overpowering."

"Oh," Max replied. "I'm not used to emotions."

Dean felt a twist of anger in his stomach. These Manticore people tried to take away Max's humanity, and that pissed Dean off to no end.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Dean asked. Max stared into his eyes.

"Yes," She whispered eventually. Dean stroked her back comfortingly.

"It's okay sweetheart. Take your time." Dean said. Dean found that it was easy to talk to Max about emotions. Maybe it was because she was a tough 12-year-old girl that could probably understand what he himself went through on a daily basis.

"I was dreaming about the tests we had to do. The tests Lydecker made us do. The tests in torture." Max began. "Lydecker taught us how to forget and remember information. He always said that no one could resist torture indefinitely, not even us. That the mind is pliable. He taught us to resist re-programming that wasn't done by Manticore, against the most common forms of torture." Max continued.

Dean was shocked. "He tortured you?" Dean asked, his eyes wide.

Max nodded. "For hours on end. He taught me how to forget my own bar-code, 332960073452. I can recite it, but I can also make myself forget it if necessary." Max replied matter-of-factly, as if she was talking about the weather.

Dean gaped at her. "That's inhumane! Child abuse!" Dean gasped.

Max shrugged, though she still shook slightly from her nightmare. "I am not considered a real person. I am equal parts disposable and indispensable. I am considered valuable property, but can be replaced if necessary." Max replied.

Dean made an angry noise. "You are a human being. You are worth just as much as me or Sam or Bobby. Never forget that!" Dean said. "You're part of the family now."

Max looked up at Dean vulnerably. "Family?" She asked softly.

"Damn straight!" Dean replied.

Max smiled softly. "I lost one family and gained another." Max said. Dean smiled and kissed Max on the top of her head.

"Most definitely." Dean replied with a grin.

Max snuggled into Dean's side and soon fell asleep in his arms. Dean grinned and soon followed her into sleep.

Sam grinned when he found Max and Dean curled up on the floor, leaning against the wall that morning. He ran back into his room and grabbed his phone, taking a picture to capture the moment.

Sam had made toast, and since they were celebrating Max's birthday, he decided to let her eat in 'bed'. Sam shook both Max and Dean awake, putting the toast in front of them.

"Morning princess!" Sam said cheerfully. Max sniggered and Dean rolled his eyes, neither of them knowing who Sam was actually talking to.

The three of them spent the first half an hour sitting on the floor, eating toast, making Max laugh. Listening to Max laugh was one of the sweetest things that Sam and Dean had ever heard. It was light and carefree, almost making them forget that Max wasn't a normal kid.

The rest of the day was spent trying to make Max have as much fun as possible, watching movies, eating cake and opening presents. Sam had bought Max a book about a girl who pretended to be a boy for 7 years so she could become a knight and a pair of runners. Dean had bought Max a watch that glowed in the dark, but had a thin silver feminine band. It look delicate, but the watch was water proof and very sturdy. Bobby had bought her a pure iron knife with Max engraved on one side and Eva engraved on the other.

Max had enjoyed her birthday immensely, thanking the three men profusely.

The next day, Dean decided it was time to take Max on her first hunt. Dean wasn't really okay with Max becoming a hunter, but she seemed to have little interest in anything else. She seemed passionate about saving people and making a difference, so even though a part of Dean wanted Max to have a normal life, he knew that that wasn't really for her.

He'd chosen a simple haunting a few towns over, just so he could show Max the ropes. Max had been a great help, her researching skills were brilliant and she had found the mortal body of the violent spirit in no time. They salted and burned the body, closing the case rather quickly. Dean had treated them both to dinner to celebrate Max's first case, buying a apple pie and sharing it with Max. Max was hooked on pie the first time she sunk her teeth into the piece she was eating. She grinned up at Dean.

Max was so pleased that it had been Sam and Dean who found her that night. She had felt so happy when Dean said she was now part of their family. Max had never really felt happiness before and she thought it was wonderful. Max was even warming up to Bobby. Max felt closer to Dean than Sam, just because she seemed to relate to Dean better. She didn't really know much about them, but she just gravitated to Dean more than Sam. Maybe it was because Dean reminded her so much of her brother Ben.

A few days later, after checking out some demonic signs, Max met her first demon. They had found the demon in an empty warehouse, making a 'call' with the ancient blood cup.

Sam and Dean and even the demon was shocked at Max's amazing abilities. She was literally faster than a bullet and could do things that almost seemed physically impossible. Max was fighting hand to hand with the demon, keeping up with it easily. Sam had thrown Max Ruby's knife and had proceeded to flip over the demon mid-air and stabbed the knife into the demon's back, killing it instantly. Max looked up and grinned at the boys' as the dead demon hit the floor.

"Nice going kid!" Dean said, breathless.

"How did you do that?" Sam gasped. "The whole, mid air flip thing?"

Max raised an eyebrow. "It is one of my enhancements." Max replied. Sam shrugged, his way of saying, 'yeah, okay'. Dean grinned and ruffled Max's short hair.

Another week passed and Max was almost a fully fledged hunter. Bobby and the boys were so proud that they took Max out to dinner. Max was pleased with her accomplishments and felt like Sam and Dean and Bobby had become her family. She had been living with them for about a month and a half. Max couldn't be happier. She was safe and protected. Max had formed a strong bond with Dean, learning his tells and the way he behaved. She managed to always make Dean smile, whether it was with a joke or the way she was sometimes confused with the way normal humans behaved.

* * *

><p>One evening not long after, the four of them sat down to watch the news when the channel flickered. Several times. It took Max a few seconds to realise what it was saying. Max gasped.<p>

The three men looked at her. "What is it?" Sam asked.

"The flashing! I know what that is!" Max exclaimed. "Our unit perfected a form of communication that we kept from Lydecker. We used radio-waves, from radios, televisions, phone signals."

"Do you know who this is?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," Max replied, focusing on the flashes. "It's my brother Ben! He's asking for extraction. He is stuck in Kansas and is afraid the heat is on him."

"Does it say where in Kansas?" Bobby asked.

"A town called Hays, about 431 miles away." Max replied. Max had since memorised the roads in the states around them, and could easily pick routes that were the most time saving.

Sam nodded. "I guess we should go get him then." Sam said.

"I will come with you," Max said and cut off the boys when they looked like they were about to object. "He won't trust you if I'm not there."

Dean shrugged. "She's got a point." Dean said. Dean turned to Max. "Well, get your shoes on and grab a hat to cover your code and your lack of hair."

Sam chuckled. "You sound like such a parent." Sam said. Dean punched Sam's shoulder.

"Shut up!" Dean replied.

Max rolled her eyes, but went to comply. Within ten minutes, Max, Sam and Dean were on the road, heading for Kansas.

"You know, we're from Kansas." Dean said, a smile in his tone. Sam snorted.

"I'm from Wyoming." Max replied, grinning. Max was pretty much bouncing with excitement. She had missed her brothers and sisters and seeing Ben would be wonderful. Max had grabbed Sam's phone and hacking into Ben's signal, telling him that she was coming for him with some friends.

The seven hour drive was boring, and for Max to be bored? Well, it was hard to make a highly military trained 12 year old killing machine bored, and Max was bored. She let out a sigh of relief when Dean finally put some music on. Max had grown to like the music Dean played and had a certain appreciation for the music Sam liked. Max herself had a preference for Latin Jazz. Dean agreed that it matched her cheeky personality.

After making a few pit stops and Max falling asleep in the back seat of the Impala, they finally arrived in Hays, Kansas.

Sam leaned back and shook Max. "Wake up sweetie, we're here." Sam murmured. Max opened her eyes and blinked.

"We're here?" Max said and Sam nodded. "Awesome." Max replied.

Sam chuckled. "You spend way too much time around Dean." Sam said. Max grinned in response.

"Do you know where Ben is?" Dean asked Max.

Max paused. "It's most likely he is hiding in a non-trafficked place, preferably somewhere high." Max replied. Their search led them to an abandoned five story building.

Max gripped her gun, and entered the building, Sam and Dean following her. They cleared each floor before making it to the final level. Max pressed them up against the wall and signaled them to hold with a military hand sign as she moved stealthily ahead of them.

Suddenly, a leg kicked out from no where and knocked the gun out of Max's hand. She recovered quickly, blocking the next kick and moving to pull her attacker out of the shadows. Her attacker sprawled on the ground and Max looked down into bright green eyes. Max's face lit up as she reached down and pulled her attacker to his feet. It was Ben.

Max grinned at him and pulled him into a hug. Ben seemed surprised at this, but returned her embrace anyway. Sam and Dean, who had been up against the wall the whole time, felt it was now safe to move closer.

Max pulled away from Ben and smiled. "It's good to see you, brother." Max said, her hand resting on his shoulder. Ben smiled.

"You too sister." Ben replied.

Max turned to Sam and Dean. "Ben, these are my friends, Sam and Dean. Sam and Dean, this is my brother Ben." Max introduced.

Ben nodded at them both. When the two men took in Ben's appearance, they both gasped. He looked exactly like Dean did when he was 12 years old, right down to the slightly crooked nose and shade of green eyes.

"What the..?" Sam murmured. Dean just stood, shocked to see his own, albeit younger face, staring back at him.

"You look like me." Ben said. "Are you from Manticore too?"

Dean shook his head. "Nah, kid. I have nothing to do with that place." Dean replied.

Ben nodded. He turned to Max. "We need to get out of here. You trust these two men?" Ben asked.

Max nodded. "With my life." Max replied.

"That's good enough for me." Ben replied. He turned to Sam and Dean. "Do you have transportation?"

"Yes," Dean replied. "Let's get out of here."

Max picked up the gun that Ben had knocked out of her hands and they left the building hurriedly.

Max and Ben sat in the backseat and Dean drove, Sam looking around them tensely, searching for any sign of police activity.

Max was regaling Ben of her time with Sam and Dean and how they had found her, subsequently saving her life.

Dean was still a little weirded out by how much Ben looked like him, like a clone.

Ben wasn't quite has stern has Max had been when Sam and Dean had first met her. Ben has a bit of sass about him that seemed to come out of him whenever Sam or Dean addressed him.

Ben turned to Max. "I prayed to the Blue Lady that you would find me." Ben said, gripping Max's hand.

Max grinned. "The Blue Lady's name is Mary, Ben." Max said. Ben frowned at her.

"I have learned many things in the past month or so, including all about religion." Max explained. Ben nodded his understanding. He turned to Sam and Dean.

"So what do you two do? For a living?" Ben asked.

"I wouldn't exactly call it a living," Dean replied.

"Should I tell him?" Max asked. Ben frowned even deeper.

"Tell me what?" Ben demanded.

Sam and Dean glanced at each other before Dean shrugged and looked at Max via the rear view mirror and nodded.

"Sam and Dean are hunters. They hunt monsters. Real monsters, like nomalies. I can explain it better when we get home." Max replied.

Ben nodded. "Yes, it would be better that we go to a more secure location first." Ben said.

Ben was no longer wearing the clothes he was wearing when he escaped, but was now wearing a shirt, pants, and flip-flops. None of which fitted quite well.

Dean met Ben's eye in the rear view mirror, both seeing the same green flashed back at them.

"When we get back, remind me to get you some clothes that fit." Dean said to Ben. Ben smiled.

"Thank you, sir." Ben said. Dean rolled his eyes, but smiled at his little clone.

* * *

><p><strong>I just want everyone to be happy! I love the bond Max and Dean have. How will that change when he goes to hell? Please review! :D<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.**

**I have decided that Ben will exist, but he won't be psycho. He'll sort of have Alec's personality, except his relationship with Max will be infinitely better.**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

* * *

><p><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 7:

Where Max had fallen asleep, Ben was still high on adrenalin. He twitched and watched the two older men as they sat in silence. Max was resting her head on Ben's shoulder. Ben wasn't used to this kind of intimacy, especially after everything that he had been through. The hug that Max had given him before had surprised Ben as well. It seemed Max was acclimatising to the outside world quite well. Max shivered and whimpered lightly in her sleep. Ben clutched her closer. It seemed he wasn't the only one who had nightmares. Ben looked up and met Dean's even stare through the rear view mirror.

Dean was boiling with questions, but he agreed with Ben to wait until they got back to Bobby's house. Sam was also asleep in the passenger seat. "So, Ben." Dean murmured softly. "Max has told us a lot about you and the rest of your unit."

Ben nodded cautiously, not sure if he trusted these men, even if Max did. "..and?" Ben asked.

Dean shrugged. "I was just wondering about you and your experiences since you left Manticore. Do you wanna tell me about yourself at all?" Dean asked, not wanting to push Ben too far.

Ben blinked. "There isn't much to tell about me personally. As far as my experiences since leaving Manticore, well, I think that is a conversation best had at a more secure location." Ben replied. It was strange for Dean to hear those words come out of a face that looked so much like his own. Dean nodded.

"Okay then," Dean replied. "We will be back to base in about two hours."

They were silent for the rest of the trip.

* * *

><p>It was extremely early in the morning when Sam, Dean, Max and Ben arrived back at Bobby's house. Ben scoped out the place immediately, just like Max had. Max leaned over to him and in rapid fire words, alerted him to all the exits and entrances and possible escape routes. Ben nodded his understanding. Bobby stepped out of the house and his eyes widened when he took in Ben's appearance.<p>

"Oh my Lord!" Bobby gasped.

"Yep," Dean said. "We know. Freaky."

"I'll say!" Bobby exclaimed. "Well, come inside you idjits!"

Ben glanced at Max and she smiled at him assuredly. Ben nodded slightly and followed Bobby into the house.

"Well, my name is Bobby." Bobby said, turning to Ben when they walked into the library. "I assume you're Ben, right?"

Ben nodded. "Yes sir!" Ben said, coming to attention.

Bobby shook his head. "No need for that boy!" Bobby scolded. "You ain't in the army any more, so you can knock off the 'sir', I work for a living!"

Max chuckled, finding it amusing that Bobby's earlier words to her had been repeated to Ben.

"Yes sir! I mean, Bobby." Ben replied, his expression slightly shocked.

"Good, now, what do you know, about anything? Tell us everything that has happened to you." Bobby asked.

"I escaped Manticore, I didn't know if anyone else got out. I hopped in the back of a truck and hitched all the way from Wyoming to Kansas. I stole these clothes off someone's clothes-line. I had a tail, so I tried to go to ground, but I think they had discovered where I was, as far as what town I was in." Ben began. "I then sent out the emergency signal that we developed and called for help. Thank the Blue Lady that you found me."

"Blue Lady?" Bobby asked.

"He means Mary." Max replied. Bobby nodded his understanding.

"Why do you call her the Blue Lady?" Bobby asked. Ben reached into his pocket and pulled out a tarot card with a heavily detailed picture of a woman in a white dress with a blue veil.

Dean took the card and examined it before handing it back to Ben. "Where did you get it from?" Dean asked.

"A cleaner gave it to me when I had a huge bout of shakes." Ben replied.

Dean nodded his understanding, knowing the story as Max had told him before.

"Okay, well her actual name is the 'Blessed Virgin Mary'." Bobby said. "Now, to get down to business. I assume you are of the same mind as Max. Not wanting to be a soldier for Manticore, but wanting to fight for a cause?"

Ben nodded. "Of course. I don't want to be a soldier for Manticore, but I do still want to be a soldier." Ben replied.

"There's some things we have to explain to you." Bobby began. "The three of us, or really the four of us, are Hunters. We hunt monsters."

Ben turned to Max. "Like the nomalies?" Ben asked her.

Max frowned. "Sort of. There is a lot more in this world than just nomalies. Demons and ghosts and vampires." Max replied.

It was Ben's turn to frown. "What are demons and vampires?" Ben asked.

The group spent the rest of the day explaining to Ben about the supernatural world, guiding him slowly from his almost dangerous obsession with the 'Blue Lady'.

Just like Max, Ben spent the next two weeks training to be a hunter. At night, he slept on the floor next to Max and did training with her in the mornings.

Ben was walking down the stairs when his knees suddenly gave out on him, convulsions shaking his body violently. Dean was the one to find Ben. Dean picked him up and carried him over to the couch to lay him down. Dean rushed into the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water and a tryptophan pill. Dean held Ben until his seizure stopped.

"You alright there buddy?" Dean asked Ben. Ben's head tipped back to lean against Dean's shoulder.

"Yeah," Ben gasped. "I'm fine." Dean helped Ben into a sitting position.

Dean put the glass of water back down onto a side table and checked Ben's head for a fever. Sometimes Max would get a fever after a particularly violent seizure.

"Thank you for your help." Ben murmured, his strength returning. He could sit up by himself now.

"Don't mention it. You sure you're okay?" Dean asked. Ben smiled softly, his first one.

"Yes, thank you Dean." Ben replied. Dean nodded, suddenly becoming a little uncomfortable.

"Alright then." Dean said, sliding off the couch. "You hungry?" Dean also noticed that Max got really hungry after a seizure and assumed it would be the same story with Ben.

"Yeah." Ben replied. Dean set to work making a ham and salad sandwich for Ben. Soon as he was done, Dean handed it to Ben.

"Thanks man." Ben said. He was beginning to sound more and more like the boys' everyday. Dean grinned.

"No sweat." Dean replied.

Bobby came into the room. "We have to talk new identity for you Ben." Bobby said.

Ben nodded. "I need to pick a new first name. Lydecker knows what we call each other. What did Max change her name to?" Ben asked.

"Eva Singer, after your sister." Bobby said. Ben smiled sadly.

"She was a brave soldier." Ben said softly. Dean grasped Ben's shoulder comfortingly. Ben appreciated it, but tried to brush it of half-heartedly. Dean understood Ben's need to hide his feelings. Not just because he was trained to, but because Dean did the exact same thing.

"My point is, you look too much like Dean for me to put you down as my nephew. I think it would be best if you were either Dean's kid or Sam and Dean's little brother. But since Sam and Dean are a lot older than you, I think little brother might be a stretch." Bobby said, looking at Dean. "I think it would be best if we made Ben your son."

Dean gasped. "But I'm supposed to be dead! Twice! I don't think it's a great idea for Ben to be my kid. The cops are already interested in me, Ben doesn't need any more heat!" Dean exclaimed.

"Well, then what do you suggest Dean? Cos we're running out of options!" Bobby snapped.

Dean sighed. "Fine, I'll do it." Dean turned to Ben. "I guess I'm your dad now. Please just keep calling me Dean unless the situation calls for you to call me dad."

Ben chuckled softly. "Fine." Ben agreed.

"What name have you picked?" Bobby asked.

Ben sighed. "I guess I'm gonna have to be Jack Winchester." Ben said. Max walked into the room and grasped Ben's hand.

"Jack would be honoured by you using his name, just like I think Eva would feel the same about me taking her name." Max said softly, smiling at Ben.

"Okay, enough chick-flick." Ben said, smirking at Max. Max scoffed and slapped Ben lightly on the shoulder.

"Shut up!" She exclaimed. Ben just laughed, his first one in the presence of other people than Max. The three men, Sam having walked in when Max did, grinned at the two children. "I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Ben chuckled. "Yeah right!" Ben taunted. "I know every move you will make. We trained together, remember?"

Max grinned wickedly at Ben. "You wanna put that to the test?" She challenged.

Ben winked. "Not gonna be much of a test." Ben retorted.

Max chuckled. "Follow me then." Max said, leading Ben out of the house.

"This'll be good." Bobby said, following the two children outside.

Both children took off their shoes and slid into combat stance. "You're not going to be able to beat me!" Ben said, smirking.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Max demanded.

Ben launched himself at Max, aiming to punch her in the dodged it easily, using an opening to punch Ben in the ribs, just enough to stun and not injure. Ben moved back from Max, suddenly more wary than he was before.

The three men stood, eyes wide, watching this incredible fight. They moved impossibly fast and with a strength that would only improve as they aged. He punched, she blocked. She punched, he blocked, all with incredible speed and accuracy.

Ben chased Max. She ran up the wall and flipped over Ben, landing behind him and kicking him into the wall Max had just run up. Ben turned and did a round kick, sending Max to the ground. Max didn't think that Ben would recover so easily. Ben was suddenly above her.

"You know, I was always better at hand to hand, Max!" Ben grinned, having pinned Max down.

"Yeah, well, Manticore didn't teach you to fight dirty!" Max cried, kneeing Ben in the crotch and kicking his feet from under him. She rolled out from under him and slid back into he stance, waiting for Ben to get back to his feet. Ben gasped in pain.

"If that had been a permanent injury, then I would have been very upset!" Ben said breathlessly, still holding himself gingerly. Max giggled.

"Come on! Is that all you got?" Max taunted. Ben lurched back to his feet, attacking Max with a new ferocity. They fought as if they had been doing it all their lives, carefully rehearsed. When Dean thought about it, the two children would have been doing it their whole lives. Their kicks and punches were graceful, quick and accurate as was their defense. Anyone watching would have thought them equally matched. But unlike Ben, Max had a few tricks up her sleeve. Max forced Ben to move backwards, making Ben loose his balance and with one final kick on Max's part, Ben was down, Max's foot at his neck.

Sam cheered, Dean hooted and Bobby rolled his eyes, though he did clap. Max removed her foot and offered Ben her hand. Ben grinned wickedly and instead of using her hand to lift himself up, he used it to pull Max down. Max, however, was ready for it. She used her body's force to continue the roll and landed back on her feet. She turned and caught Ben, her hand around his neck.

"That's cheating!" Max said, laughing. She released her grip on Ben's neck.

Ben laughed. "Well, I couldn't go down without a fight!" Ben replied.

The two children walked back towards the house. Ben was still quite wary of the three older men. He did not trust them, but he did trust Max and her judgment. Ben was also wary as to why him and Dean looked so alike. How could they be so identical, albeit Ben still being a child. Even though Max was still reserved around the three men due to the conditioning and training, she wasn't as reserved as Ben was. Of course, Ben had only known the three hunters for two weeks whereas Max had known them for two months.

* * *

><p>Every night, Ben prayed to the Blue Lady, or Mary, as was her real name. Ben found his ideas of what Mary wanted had changed as he was educated and grew more knowledgeable. Ben knew that Dean had no faith. He didn't believe in Mary or God. Sam seemed to have some faith, but that faith was slowly waning as well.<p>

Later that night, after Bobby and Max went to bed, Ben listened to a late night conversation the two younger hunters were having. They didn't know he was loitering at the doorway.

"Look Sam, I only have three months left before the hounds drag me off the Hell. If training Ben and Max to be hunters keeps them alive and potentially saving other people's lives, then so be it." Dean said.

Sam nodded. "Yeah. I just wish they'd both trust us more." Sam replied.

Dean shook his head. "What reason do they have to trust us? I mean, I hope Max trusts me. We've gotten.. well, close and we've been hunting together. But Ben? Yeah, he looks like me and sounds like me, but he isn't me. They both have been conditioned not to trust anyone but each other. 'Civilians are not to be trusted'. Remember when Max said that in her sleep the second night she was with us?" Dean said. "It'll take time for them to trust us."

"We don't have much time. Like you said, you only have three months before you're going to Hell and we aren't any closer to bringing Lilith down." Sam said, taking a sip from his beer.

Dean snorted. "Yeah, well. Just another demon bitch." Dean said. "We'll find a way. Besides, maybe Ruby's knife could take her down. You don't have any psychic powers left, do you?"

Sam frowned. "You want me to use my demon power? It has never been good, for anything. I've even stopped having death visions. You know that. It just doesn't seem like a very good idea." Sam replied.

Dean sighed. "Yeah, I know. It was just an idea." Dean looked up at the clock on the wall. "It's late, we should probably get some sleep, especially if Max is gonna be teaching us some new tricks tomorrow."

Sam laughed quietly. "Yeah, you mean kick our ass like she kicked Ben's?" Sam said.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Whatever." Dean replied.

Ben realised that the two men were coming towards him, and hurried up the stairs silently, so they wouldn't catch him eavesdropping. He slipped back into his and Max's room and under the covers of their make-shift bed. Ben tried hard not to jostle Max as he laid down. Max muttered something in her sleep, but rolled over and didn't awaken.

Ben pretended to be asleep when Sam poked his head into the room to check on the two children.

Ben thought over what he had just heard. Dean had three months before the hounds dragged him down to Hell. Ben realised that Dean must have sold his soul for something. Bobby had been talking to him about Crossroads demons earlier that day. He wondered what Dean had sold his soul for. Ben didn't want to ask outright. He would look into subtle interrogation techniques later.

* * *

><p><strong>So, what do we think of Ben and how he's evolving as a character? I was trying to keep him true to Ben's character and what we saw of him, but sort of change his path towards Dean and Alec's personality. I sort of want to go more into why Ben and Dean look exactly the same, maybe work some Men of Letters stuff into it. What do you think? Please review! :D<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 8:

"If Manticore are taking monsters and putting their DNA into kids, then we've go to stop them. If we could hack their system, we could find out a way to bring them down." Sam said. It was three days before Dean was being taken to Hell. Everyone was on edge.

Sam and Dean had since told Max and Ben what was happening and why Dean was going to Hell. They told them everything, from what happened to their mother, to the yellow-eyed demon to Dean selling his soul to bring Sam back to life.

Max and Ben had sat patiently through the explanation and were sitting silently.

"Why don't we kill Lilith or convince her to release you from your deal? Making sure that she leaves in the part about keeping Sam alive?" Ben asked.

"That would be a good idea, but we have no idea where to find Lilith." Dean replied.

Max pondered this for a moment. "Didn't Lilith tell you not that long ago that she liked eating babies?" Max asked.

Sam and Dean looked at each other. "Yeah..?" Dean asked.

"Well, she has to be getting the babies from somewhere, right? Maybe she has some demons or one specific demon that gets them for her." Max said.

"Huh, I never thought about that." Sam said, looking at Dean.

Bobby pulled a phone out of his pocket. "Let me make a few calls and see if any babies have been going missing." Bobby said, and he got up and left the room.

Ben turned to Sam and Dean. "In the meantime, Max and I could attempt to hack into Manticore's servers." Ben said. "Hand me your laptop?"

Sam handed the laptop wordlessly to Ben. Max pulled her new laptop out of the bag beside her chair and looked Ben in the eye for a few moments, as if communicating to him non-verbally. She then turned to look at Sam and Dean.

"This could take a while. Like days or maybe even weeks. Since the X5's escaped, they might have beefed up their security." Max said.

Bobby was on hold, and stood in the door way, watching the two children set up their hack. Bobby had yet to express his opinion of Ben. Ben had proved to be a capable hunter, though his obsession with Virgin Mary worried him, not to mention why Ben and Dean were practically identical. Bobby didn't want to go so far as to say that he didn't trust Ben, but he wasn't sure if Ben would ever be the first person Bobby would confide in. Ben was just to strange, too weird. Bobby left the room again when a real person finally answered.

The two children had moved to the kitchen table, sitting together, their fingers flying impossibly fast over the key board. Sam and Dean watched them over the children's shoulders. What they were doing was way passed simple credit card fraud and Sam and Dean were afraid what the the two children were doing was over their heads.

The two children sat in silence for an hour or two, sometimes nodding to each other, continuing their non-verbal communtication that frankly freaked the two hunters out a bit. The children were so in sync, it was almost scary and it this point, they seemed their most inhuman. They worked like machines, which made their other abilities seem completely normal.

Sam and Dean tried to be as quite as possible, trying not to distract the two children. Bobby had come into the room a short time later to give the boys some news.

"It seems quite a lot of hospitals all along the east coast have had children go missing. There is a pattern though. They only attack cities that have at least three hospitals and avoid ones that say things like 'St Mary's' ect." Bobby said. "They also seemed to be moving south each time."

"Where does that leave us?" Sam asked.

"Virgina," Bobby replied. "They started in Maine. They're probably possessing the meat suits of the doctors and nurses."

Dean frowned. "It'll take us at least a day to get there with Baby." Dean said, referring to the Impala.

"20 hours, 13 minutes." Max said from behind them, her eyes not deviating from the screen of her laptop.

"Heh, okay," Dean said, rolling his eyes and smiling slightly. "20 hours and 13 minutes."

Sam laughed softly. "How close are you to getting in?" Sam asked, glancing over at the kids.

They were silent for a moment. "6 hours." Both children said, in synch.

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Okay then. That's specific." Dean said.

Sam shrugged and picked up his bag. "I guess we better get started." Sam said. Suddenly, Ruby appeared in front of them.

"Ruby." Dean said, glaring at her.

"Dean." She replied, responding with an equally venomous glare. Sam sighed.

"What do you want Ruby?" Sam asked.

She took a few steps forward, ignoring the two children on their laptops. "I understand that you've found Lilith's chef." Ruby said.

Dean's eyes narrowed. "And how do you know that?" Dean asked suspiciously.

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Bobby over there wasn't too subtle with his questioning." Ruby snapped, flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder. "Don't worry, I killed the demons who got sus. They have no idea what you're planning."

"Well, we're about to hit the road, so, beat it bitch." Dean snarled.

Ruby's eyes narrowed. "Not even a thank you. You're lucky I'm even helping you." Ruby said angrily. "I'll meet you there. You're gonna need my help if you want the demon to talk."

"Don't worry, we know how to get a demon to talk!" Dean snapped.

Ruby rolled her eyes. "What are you gonna do? Splash Holy Water on them until they scream 'uncle'? It's not going to work. Lilith's people are almost immune to basic forms of torture." Ruby replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You've got to get under their skin. Literally and figuratively."

Dean snorted. "Well, thanks for the advice, princess. Now fuck off." Dean said. Sam sent Dean another "don't-swear-in-front-of-the-kids look", but Dean ignored it.

"Fuck you Winchester!" Ruby snapped before disappearing again.

Dean grinned to himself. He enjoyed pissing off Ruby immensely. "Come on Sammy!" Dean said, picking up his bag with gusto. "Time to catch us a demon!"

Sam rolled his eyes and followed Dean out the door. "Hey, if you guys find anything or need us, just give us a call, yeah?" Sam said, hovering at the door.

"Yes Sam." Ben and Max replied. Sam wondered if they realised how creepy they were when they did that.

"We're in." Max said as Bobby walked into the kitchen. "We have about 20 minutes before they realise we're here."

Bobby nodded. "Find out what you can." Bobby said.

"Here!" Ben said. "Manticore is taking sub-terrestrials to do tests on, seeing if their altered DNA can be added to pure human genomes."

Bobby's eyes widened. "They're trying what?! Use the supernatural to make soldiers? That's insane!" Bobby said. "See if you can see where they found your DNA, Ben."

Ben nodded. "The barriers around that information will take me at least 10 minutes to crack." Ben said.

"I'll help." Max pipped in.

"Get it done." Bobby said.

* * *

><p>Sam and Dean had just arrived in Virginia. Dean had floored the Impala and took some back routes that Max didn't factor in, taking their travel time down from 21 hours to 12. Ruby appeared next to them.<p>

"I've found the nurse that the demon is possessing. She's about to make a delivery to Lilith. I heard one of the couriers saying that Lilith was on R and R." Ruby said.

Dean frowned. "R and R? Where?" Dean asked.

"That's what we have to find out." Ruby replied.

"What would a demon like Lilith do for rest and recreation?" Sam asked, thinking aloud. Ruby turned to him.

"You don't want to know." Ruby replied.

"How about this, instead of interrogating the nurse, why don't we just follow the courier?" Dean asked.

"What? And use a baby as bait?" Ruby scoffed. "Good plan."

"If the chef doesn't come through with food, then Lilith will know something is off." Dean said. "We follow the courier, it'll take us straight to Lilith."

Sam and Ruby looked at each other. Sam shrugged. "That's actually a good plan." Sam said.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Always the tone of surprise(!) I do occasionally have good plans." Dean said. Ruby sighed.

"Well, it better be a good plan, cos the courier is heading off now." Ruby said, pointing at a van that was pulling out of the hospital car park. Dean started the Impala's engine and began to follow the van. He glanced up into the rear view mirror and looked at Ruby. Dean's eyes widened. She was grotesque.

"Wow, Ruby. You're one ugly broad." Dean said.

Sam frowned. "What?" Sam said, glancing at Ruby and then at Dean.

"I can see the demon inside the meat suit." Dean said.

"What?" Sam said, this time more alarmed.

"What did you expect, Dean? You're piercing the veil. You're going to Hell tomorrow." Ruby said, rolling her eyes. "Now, come on and follow that fucking van!"

* * *

><p>"I found something!" Max said. Ben and Bobby leaned over slightly to look at Max's screen.<p>

"What is it?" Bobby asked.

"When Dean was born, a secret society known as 'the Men of Letters' took a sample of Dean's blood to put in the files. John and Mary Winchester had no idea that this had been done. Due to Dean's blood line, going all the way back to Cain and Able, his blood was considered incredibly valuable and could be used for Blood Magic." Max began.

"Really?" Bobby said, shocked. "What else does it say?"

"In the year 1996, Manticore found one of the Men of Letters head quarters, the one that stored the blood." Max continued. "Manticore believed that the Men of Letters were some kind of cult and used the information obtained from the Men of Letters to capture sub-terrestrials to do experiments on."

"Then what happened?" Bobby asked.

"Seeing as though Dean is a decendant of the Men of Letters, Manticore decided to use his blood, his DNA to created super-soldiers." Max said, her eyes wide. She looked at Ben. "You don't just look like Dean, Ben. You're his clone!"

"Clone?" Ben asked. "There are many of us. I know that there are at least four other X5 versions of me."

Bobby sighed. "We need to tell Sam and Dean when they get back." Bobby almost growled.

"We should download this information." Ben said firmly.

"Agreed." Max replied. They both turned back to their screens. A warning appeared on the top corner of the computer screens.

"They're trying to back hack us!" Ben exclaimed. "I can't get them to back off!"

"Hold on! Let me try something!" Max said. Her fingers moved furiously fast over the keyboard. "I can't hold them off for long."

Ben continued typing. "They've got a lock on us!" Ben said, turning worried eyes to Max.

"We have to destroy the servers or they'll find us and kill us! It's the only way!" Max cried.

"So what do we do?" Bobby said, standing behind them.

"We can't destroy the hard-lines, not from here." Ben began. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "EMP! There are hundreds of small ones planted all around the main servers in New York and Boston in case Manticore needed to disappear and destroy all their information."

"But, wouldn't that destroy everything?" Bobby asked.

Ben sighed. "Just everything electric." Ben replied.

Max nodded. "It's a risk we have to take." Max said solemnly.

"Can you set them off from here?" Bobby asked.

"They were designed to be detonated from a distance, so yes, they can be detonated from here." Ben replied. "You ready Maxie?"

Max let out a deep breath. "As ready as I'll ever be." Max replied. She leaned forward and she and Ben began to hack the codes and security around the EMP burst bombs.

* * *

><p>The Hell-hounds were banging at the door, Dean moved towards the back of the room. He was glad that the dust was securely in place.<p>

Ruby turned to Sam. "Give me the knife, maybe I can fight it off." Ruby said quickly.

Sam looked at her, confused. "What?"

"Come on! That dust won't last forever." Ruby exclaimed.

Dean turned around and looked at them from behind Sam. After a few seconds, Sam took out the knife, and was about to hand it to Ruby.

"Wait!" Dean suddenly shouted, comprehension crossing his face.

Sam turned around to Dean, looking at him with a slightly bemused expression.

"You wanna die?" Ruby sneered.

"Sam, that's not Ruby. It's not Ruby!" Dean said.

Sam turned back to Ruby who, without touching him, flinged him hard up against the wall, pinning him. He dropped the knife and it fell to the floor, leaving a dint in the wooden slats. Ruby moved forward and hit Dean, still not touching him, and flung him on top of the table, pinning him down as well. Dean grunted as he held up his head so he could look at Ruby, his body sore from being slammed onto the table. Sam looked from Dean to Ruby.

"How long you been in her?" Dean demanded.

Ruby's entire facial expression changed and became childlike. Lilith has taken over the body Ruby possessed.

"Not long." Lilith said in a sickly sweet voice. She looked down at her body as she spoke. "But I like it. It's all grown up and pretty."

Lilith looked up at Dean again, her eyes turned white.

"And where's Ruby?" Sam spat.

Lilith's eyes turned back to normal. "She was a very bad girl, so I sent her far, far away." Lilith replied, her voice turning slightly wistful.

Lilith tilted her head from side to side, the muscles and bones cracking loudly.

"You know, I should have seen it before... but you all look alike to me." Dean chuckles humourlessly.

After a beat, Lilith snapped her head to Sam, who looks over at her. She started walking slowly towards him.

"Hello, Sam. I've wanted to meet you for a very long time." Lilith said. She grabbed a hold of Sam's chin, forcing him to face her. Against his will, Lilith gave him a kiss and their lips sizzled when they touched.

"Your lips are soft." Lilith said again in that sickly sweet voice.

Sam moved his head up and to the side, trying to get loose from her hand.

"Right, so you have me. Let my brother go." Sam said, struggling against Lilith.

Lilith grinned. "Silly goose. You wanna bargain, you have to have something that I want. You don't." Lilith said, shaking her head slightly.

"So, is this your big plan, huh? Drag me to hell. Kill Sam. And then what? Become queen bitch?" Dean snapped, glaring at Lilith.

Lilith smiled cruelly. "I don't have to answer to puppy chow." She said softly.

Dean was in pain on the table, Lilith's invisible restraints felt as if they're cutting into his skin. Lilith suddenly moved away from Sam, staring at Dean, and walked over to the door while Dean followed her movements with his eyes. Lilith grabbed a hold of the door handle.

"Sic 'em, boy!" Ruby said as she pulled the door open.

Sam looked over to Dean when the door opened. Dean met Sam's glance before turning his attention to the now open door. The goofer dust had blown away and Dean heard the hounds enter the room.

Dean let out a scream of pain as he felt claws racking down his legs and chest. His heart was beating wildly, fear tearing through him as fiercely as the Hell Hound's claws.

Lilith just stood there and laughed as Dean was torn to shreds. The Hellhound grabbed Dean by his legs and pulled him down, causing Dean to scream loudly. Sam, left bound against the wall, helpless, scared and panicked, watched his brother ripped to pieces.

"No! Stop!" Sam cried.

Lilith looked over at Sam and grinned before turning her attention back to the violent display.

"STOP IT!" Sam screamed. He wanted to run, he wanted to attack, to save his brother, but he couldn't move.

Lilith just watched, a little smile on her face. The hound slashed Dean on his back and his shoulder, blood gushing out of the open wounds.

"No!" Sam yells.

Dean was flipped over and the Hound slashed him over his chest, blood oozing. Sam watched in horror.

"No. Stop it." Sam said weakly. He could see that Dean was losing. He could see the light slowly leaving Dean's eyes. Sam watched as Dean took his last few breaths.

"STOP IT! NO!" Sam all but sobbed.

The blood poured out of Dean's chest, and no longer screamed, but Dean was not yet dead.

Lilith grinned at Sam. "Yes!" She said. With one last growl, Dean's back arched and his body slumped back down on the ground, now completely dead.

Lilith laughed before she turned to Sam and held out her hand as white light erupted from it. As the light built, Sam had to turn his head and close his eyes. Suddenly, Lilith's white light retracted, her eyes were still white but were slowly turning back to normal. She looked confused and shocked.

Sam was on the floor, huddled in a corner next to a cabinet, holding his hands up in front of his face. When Sam noticed that nothing had happened and the light was gone, he slowly lowered his hands. He looked up at Lilith and rose to his feet. Lilith looked at the floor, suddenly very afraid. She held out her hand and looked at him, as if trying to push him away.

"Back." Lilith said, trying to fling him against the wall, but failing.

Sam took a deep breath and started walking towards her.

"I said, back!" Lilith shouted.

Sam, with a determined look on his face, bent down and picked up Ruby's knife. He moved closer to Lilith, an extremely hateful expression on his face.

"I don't think so." Sam snapped.

Sam raised his hand, knife clenched tightly and moved to stab her but suddenly Lilith discarded the meat suit. The black smoke that was Lilith flew out of the meat suit and through a ventilation shaft at the back of the room, leaving Sam alone with the corpse of his brother, lying in a pool of blood. Dean wasn't moving, his dead eyes open, staring without seeing at the ceiling above him. Sam looked down at him, breathing heavily. Ruby's dead meat suit was lying next to Dean's body as well.

With tears building up quickly, Sam slowly walked over to Dean. He began to cry and fell to his knees. He pulled Dean onto his lap, holding Dean's head close to his own.

"No... no... Dean..." Sam whispered. He felt numb, like there was nothing left in the world. He didn't care. About anything at that moment. He just held Dean's body and cried.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, that was sad and hard to write. Now, how will Max and Ben deal with the loss of Dean and what do the rest of Team Free Will think of the Men of Letters? Please review, I'll love you forever! :D<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'

Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.

In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.

Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.

* * *

><p><span><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 9:

It had been 93 days, 3 hours and 6 minutes since Dean had gone to Hell. Max and Ben felt the loss greatly. It felt as if they had lost more than just a friend and someone who had saved them, but a brother.

Sam wouldn't let them burn Dean's body, saying that Dean would need it when he returned from Hell. He wouldn't elaborate further, and that worried Max to no end. She hoped he wasn't planning anything reckless or stupid, like selling his soul to bring Dean back.

Max and Sam had their first fight. Max had caught Sam drinking Ruby's blood and had scolded him for it. She knew that Ruby was leading Sam down a dark path, no matter how many lives Sam saved with what he was doing. Max knew that drinking the blood of a demon was not a good thing. Max had promised to not tell anyone of what she had seen if Sam stopped drinking the blood. Sam agreed, but Max didn't believe him when he had stopped permanently. Sometimes Max could smell the blood on him, but she chose not to comment. Max trusted Sam, but she did not trust the man he was after he came back from seeing Ruby, even though he said he hadn't gone to see her. Max also knew he was lying to her. She could smell Ruby all over him.

America was quickly getting back on it's feet after Max and Ben had set off the pulse. As far as they knew, all the data that Manticore had that was stored in New York and Boston had been destroyed as well as any evidence that Max and Ben had been there.

Sam had been gone a month or so, leaving Max and Ben with Bobby in Sioux Falls. Max's hair had grown until it was just long enough to cover her bar-code. Her hair was milk chocolate in colour, with slight curls and brought out the warm brown tones found in her eyes.

Ben was looking more and more like Dean with each passing day, so much that it was hard to look at him for very long without being reminded of Dean. Ben felt bad, thinking that he was the reason that Sam was staying away from them, but Max knew better. She knew that Sam was with Ruby, doing God knows what. Ben's hair had also grown. It was short and scruffy and ash blonde in colour. His eyes were bright green, just like Dean's had been and Ben also had a dusting of freckles on his face, also like Dean.

Max and Ben spent the next month attempting to crack through all the information that they had collected on their trip into the Manticore servers. There wasn't much on Men of Letters except that they dealed with the supernatural and helped fight evil. Max also couldn't find any information on them from recent times either. After the 1950's all mention of them seems to stop. They must have kept all operations underground, that's the only way they could exist and take Dean's blood as a child and still remain without any sort of paper trail. Manticore's records of the Men of Letters were sketchy at best.

Max sighed with frustration and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Ben had already zonked out for the night, but Max had insisted on continuing work.

Max lifted her head and glanced at the wall. She looked at a framed photo that hung there. It was a picture of Sam, Dean, Bobby, Max and Ben. They were smiling and happy. Max let out a shaky breath and one tear slid down her face. She missed Dean terribly, his hugs, his smile, his stupid humour. Her chest ached for him. Max wiped the tear away angrily. "Soldiers don't cry!" Max whispered firmly to herself. She looked up at Dean's smiling face and felt her chest squeeze in anguish. She wanted to wail, she wanted to scream and shout and cry. But she didn't. Max knew if she started crying, it would be a long time before she could stop.

Max turned back to her laptop and continued working on the data.

* * *

><p>Bobby sat in his room, drinking a beer. He wasn't one for emotions or talking about emotions. But he had two children in his charge and they probably needed to express theirs even if Bobby couldn't.<p>

Bobby had no idea how the two children would respond to Dean's death. They were trained as soldiers from the moment they could walk, maybe even from before that. Bobby wasn't sure how Ben and Max would deal with it. Bobby knew how Sam and Dean would have reacted had they been in Max and Ben's place, but Max and Ben were completely different from Sam and Dean.

When Bobby had told Max and Ben of Dean's death, they had been silent, still and expressionless. Bobby knew they cared, but Bobby thought they were just looking at it logically and compartmentalising it. Little did Bobby know that Max was barely holding it together. It was all she could do to freeze herself into a almost meditative state. Ben's reaction, even though was outwardly the same as Max, was different on the inside. Ben was greatly saddened by the loss of Dean, much like he was when they lost Eva or Jack or the others during the many tests that Lydecker put them through. However, he was not quite as broken up about it as Max was. But then, Ben had not known Dean as long as Max had.

Ben had noticed a twitch in Max's cold facade. He knew how much pain Max was in and had waited for Bobby to leave the room before he turned to comfort her.

Ben had pulled Max into a hug. No words were said and no tears were shed. That lack of emotion had not allowed the news to feel real. It couldn't be real, if they couldn't feel it. Both children suppressed their feelings of grief, deciding that this was not the time to feel sad. They both had so much work they had to do and crying was not efficient. The silence was deafening. This small hug was the most amount of emotion that the two children could show. Max mostly began to feel numb.

Bobby had watched them with fascination. He had anticipated that there would be tears, probably from Max, but their silence was almost erie.

Max had leaned back from the hug and held Ben's hand for a moment before leaving the room.

The next day, Sam had returned from the East Coast, saying that he had buried Dean.

* * *

><p>Max didn't talk much in those 121 days without Dean. She fought and trained harder than ever. Max trapped, killed and exorcised demons by the hundred, tricking them into thinking she was just a weak little girl. It worked for the most part, but sometimes a demon wouldn't fall for her act for long, and that's when Max generally went home with a new scar. Max avoided Ruby like the plague, thinking she might do something rash near the demon. Max knew that Sam wouldn't appreciate it if something happened to Ruby.<p>

Ben had been operating much like Max had been, except he was spending time trying to find their other lost brothers and sisters, but so far he had discovered nothing. But like Bobby said, sometimes no news is good news. Since Manticore hadn't picked up any of the other X5's, then they had probably successfully gone to ground.

It was Max who found Dean. Ben had gone on a run and wouldn't be back for a few hours and Bobby had gone to the local library to look up some old piece of lore.

Dean had knocked on the door. Of course, according to her training, Max tried to kill him. After a small scuffle in the library, Dean was able to prove that we was in fact who he said he was.

Max had slapped him then, fully slapped him. Dean winced in pain, knowing that Max's slap would leave a bright red mark. Then, Max began to rant at him, demanding to know how he was back, how he had not killed Ruby or Lilith when he had the chance. She called him names and told him he was stupid, her voice breaking as she hurled insults at him.

Dean stared at her, eyes wide. Max spun, turning to meet Dean's eyes and pulled him into a tight hug. Dean felt her tears leak onto his shirt.

"Don't you dare die again!" Max whispered furiously and tearily. "I shall never forgive you if you do!"

Dean chuckled softly. "Don't worry sweetheart, I'll try not to." Dean replied, kissing Max of the top of her head.

"You'd better not! I love you too much, you idiot!" Max said, gripping onto Dean tightly.

Dean smiled. "I love you too sweetie. I missed you so much." Dean replied. They had since fallen to the floor. Max pulled away slightly from the hug, the floor-boards cold on her bare legs. Max looked into Dean's eyes. Her watery smile faltered when she saw the light in them had dimmed.

She stroked his face softly. "They hurt you." She whispered. Dean looked away. Max forced his face back up, making him meet her eyes once again. She smiled sadly. "You don't need to tell me what happened. I can guess. Just know that when you are ready to talk, I'm here."

Dean let out a humourless chuckle. "Sure. I'm gonna tell a 12 year old girl about my personal experiences in Hell." Dean said, almost sarcastically. Max glared at Dean and slapped him again, albeit, not as hard as the first time.

"How dare you?" Max said in a dangerously calm, but slightly strained voice. "How dare you treat me like a child."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "You're 12 years old. I'm not gonna tell you about how they tortured me." Dean said.

Max glared at him again. She went to slap him again, but Dean caught her arm before it could make contact. "You forget Dean. I'm not just a 12 year old girl. I'm a highly trained super-solider that could kill you in a moments notice." Max snapped. She sighed. "I have been tortured too you know Dean."

Dean's face softened. He sighed. "Yeah, I'm sorry. It's just, well, it's been about 40 years since I last saw you Max. I guess I forgot you're not just a weak little girl." Dean replied, running hand through his short, dirt covered blonde hair.

Max raised an eyebrow. "40 years?" Max asked.

"Yeah," Dean replied. "I guess time moves fast down there."

Max frowned. "You've only been gone 121 days, 4 hours and 46 minutes." Max said.

Dean eyes widened. "That's all?" Dean asked. At that moment, Bobby burst in through the front door. He looked at Dean, gaping at him.

"Dean?" Bobby gasped. "Is that really you?"

Dean, who was still holding Max in his arms, slipped out of her grip and rose to his feet. "Yeah Bobby, it's really me." Dean replied.

Suddenly, Bobby pulled a knife and ran at Dean, intending to kill.

"Bobby! Stop! I'm me! I swear!" Dean exclaimed.

"Shape-shifter or a demon wearing his meat-suit!" Bobby said, lunging at Dean again.

"Please, Bobby, stop!" Dean said. "You're Bobby Singer! You're the closest thing I have to a father. You practically adopted me and Sam, not to mention Max and Ben."

Bobby lowered the knife and moved towards the kitchen table. He picked up a bottle and unscrewed the lid. He seemed to about to sip it, but suddenly splashed the contents of the bottle onto Dean's face. Dean coughed and spat out some of the water that had found its way into his mouth. Dean wiped the rest of the water off his face.

"I'm not a demon." Dean replied. He held up his arm and showed Bobby a small knife wound. "I've already been through all this with Max."

Bobby turned to Max, who then nodded furiously.

Bobby's expression turned into a disbelieving grin. He pulled Dean into a hug and then stepped away, as if to take in Dean's form. "It's good to see you boy!" Bobby said.

"You too Bobby!" Dean said, grinning at Bobby. "Where's Sam?"

Bobby's smile faded. "I don't know," Bobby replied. "He checks in every now and then, but I haven't seen him for a few weeks now."

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry I haven't posted sooner. I was just having a bit of a holiday hiatus, but I'm back now. Tell me what you think of this chapter, I'm not too sure about it. Thanks! Please review!<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 10:

Ben's reunion with Dean had been a little different than Max's had been. Where Max had yelled and screamed at Dean before hugging him and crying, Ben simply pulled Dean into a hug and smiled at him, before pulling away. Ben had smiled at Dean with a sense of pride that touched Dean deeply. Even though Dean didn't think he would ever have any children of his own, but Dean felt like Ben was slowly becoming that, a son. That realisation scared Dean at first, but then he realised that Ben wasn't like other kids. He wasn't as breakable as Lisa's son Ben, and this super-soldier Ben was so much more like him in ways Lisa's Ben could never be.

Sam's reaction to Dean being back had been violent at first before he embraced his brother. Max and Ben hadn't been there for that. Max knew that Ruby would be with Sam and had chosen to avoid being anywhere near the demon. Though, Max said nothing of this to Dean or Bobby. Ben knew, or at least he had an inkling. Max could never truly keep anything from Ben, not entirely anyway.

Max laid in bed that night, almost dreading the possible return of Sam. She loved Sam to bits, maybe not as much as Dean, but she did love him. He was like a big brother, but Max was angry with him. She tossed and turned, still not understanding why Sam would choose to trust a demon. Max resolved to tell Dean everything. How Sam was getting high off Ruby's blood.

Max woke up grumpy, having another nightmare about Manticore and Lydecker. She'd gotten up that morning and spent it destroying the punching bag that was in the basement with her feet and fists. As much as she tried to hide it, Max was still very affected by what happened to her at Manticore. So far, Manticore had no idea where she was, and for that Max was incredibly thankful, but even that information didn't help soothe her painful memories and nightmares.

Dean and Bobby came back a few days later, saying that had the name of the thing that had brought Dean back. Castiel. Max knew the name was familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. Dean told Max what had happened to the psychic Pamela when she had seen whatever Castiel was. Ben had raised an eyebrow at that, but otherwise keeping his opinions to himself.

Bobby often found himself watching Ben. Not in a creepy way, but in a way that proved Bobby didn't quite trust him. Bobby wasn't sure if Ben knew he didn't completely trust him, but Bobby didn't let it show. Bobby wondered how many clones there were of Dean, having discovered that Ben wasn't the only one. Apparently, the super-soldiers were cloned in pairs, meaning that there was at least one more clone somewhere, most likely still at Manticore.

Ben himself was still quiet and reserved as ever. He knew that there was something wrong with Sam and that Max knew about it. This worried him. Ben didn't like the idea that something might happen to his new family. His attempts to find the others in their unit were rather fruitless. Ben worried about them all. He hoped that it wasn't just Max and him that had escaped. And most of all, Ben worried about Max. After she had had a nightmare, her shakes would be worse. Ben would have to give her three tryptophan pills and hold her for hours. Sometimes Max would hide her shakes from him, as if trying not to appear weak in front of him. Ben would roll his eyes at this and just kiss her forehead. Ben knew what Max was capable of and she could never appear weak to him, and Ben told her this. Max would just roll her eyes, but Ben saw the blush she would try to hide.

* * *

><p>Max was nearly 13 when her first period arrived. She had been asleep and had bled through her bed shorts. Max had been scared at first when she had found the blood, but after a quick surf on her laptop told her what was really going on. Max found some bandages and wrapped herself up as best as she could. She new that she would need sanitary items, but had no idea who to ask about that. She couldn't go to Bobby or Sam, that would just be really awkward. She snuck downstairs and found Dean, he was sitting on the porch, watching the stars. Max blushed at the thought of what she was about to ask Dean.<p>

Max sat down on the chair beside Dean. He looked at her and smiled softly. "Hey kid, what are you doing up?" He asked her quietly. He saw Max take in a deep breath.

"Doyouknowifthereareanyshopsopenatthistimeofnight? Ineedsomepersonalitems." Max said in a huffed out rush. She didn't really want to outright tell Dean what was going on, but she wanted him to kind of assume.

Dean raised an eyebrow. He knew whatever Max was talking about made her very embarrassed. "What kind of personal items? Why can't it wait till morning?" Dean asked, not entirely sure what Max was going on about.

Max sighed. She swallowed almost audibly. "Uh, because it can't." Max said. "Dean, you do realise I'm a girl, yeah?"

Dean frowned. "Yeah...?" Dean said, still not sure where she was going with this.

"I don't know any women I can talk to about stuff like this," Max said, hoping Dean would get the hint.

Dean's eyes widened and he let out a small huff of air. "Oh." He said. Clearly he understood. "Yeah, there's a little 24/hour shopping mart down the road. We can go get some stuff now."

Max let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks Dean." Max said, a small smile appearing on her face.

Dean ruffled her short hair. "It's cool Max. You're a girl, you have to go through things that dudes don't." Dean said. "Put some proper clothes on and we'll go in about five minutes."

Max quickly rushed upstairs and put on a pair of jeans before meeting Dean outside the house. They road to the supermarket in silence. It was a little awkward.

Dean stood outside the woman's sanitary isle while Max walked down it. There was a woman standing there, looking for the brand she preferred. Max walked up to her.

"Excuse me," Max said, tapping the woman on the shoulder.

The lady turned and smiled pleasantly at Max. "What's up sweetie?" The lady asked.

Max turned and gestured at the wall of pads and tampons. "I don't know what to..." Max said, but she trailed off.

The woman chuckled not unkindly. "It's alright sweetie. Didn't your mum tell you about this stuff?" The woman asked.

Max shrugged. "I don't have a mother, just a dad." Max said. "He doesn't really know about this stuff either."

The woman chuckled again. "Okay then, I'll help you then. I assume this is your first period." The woman asked.

Max nodded, blushing brightly.

The woman nodded and flicked her hair in thought. "I suggest two packs of pads. You're too young for tampons." The woman reached up and pulled two packets of regular winged pads. She handed them to Max. "If your flow isn't too heavy, these should work just fine. Also, if you get cramps, just some painkillers should help."

Max smiled up at the woman. "Thank you for all your help." Max said.

The woman grinned. "No problem honey. Your first period can be traumatic if you don't know what's going on." The woman said.

Max thanked the woman one more time before walking away and over to Dean.

Dean cleared his throat. "Did you, uh, get everything you need?" Dean asked, blushing faintly.

Max grinned. "Yeah, that lady over there was really helpful." Max said. Dean looked up and saw the lady. His eyes widened. He quickly steered Max away and to the checkout before rushing them back to the Impala.

"Did you know that woman?" Max asked, raising an eyebrow. "She seemed really nice."

Dean cleared his throat. "Yeah, I know her. Her name is Jo. I don't know what she's doing around here though. I think she still thinks I'm dead. Let's just hope she didn't see me. It might be a bit awkward." Dean said.

Max snorted. "Any more awkward than the last half an hour?" Max said, rolling her eyes.

Dean laughed. "Sorry. Girls and their periods aren't really my area of expertise. You should have asked Sam." Dean said, smirking.

Max shrugged. "I felt more comfortable asking you." Max said simply. Dean glanced down at her and grinned.

"Thanks Max." Dean said, a little touched.

Max frowned. "For what?" Max asked.

"For trusting me." Dean replied with a smile.

"Always." Max replied with a smile.

* * *

><p><strong>Ah, I always enjoy writing awkward period scenes. It makes everything seem more real and human, that people like this are still subject to the horrors of puberty. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review! :D<strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 11:

The nightmare had been quite vivid.

The room was cold, as was the metal stirrup chair that Max was strapped to. She couldn't see as there was a black bag over her head. Suddenly, the bag was ripped off and a bright light was flashed in Max's eyes.

Max glanced around the operating room and spied Lydecker's usual collection of torture tools with the edition of a few new ones. 'Toys' as Lydecker liked to call them.

Lydecker's voice floated to the fore-front of Max's mind. The same words that often haunted Max's dreams.

"_No one can resist torture indefinitely, not even you. The mind is malleable. Eventually, you will reveal everything that you know. I must train you to withstand all basic forms of torture before delving deeper, such as psychological torture as well as more advanced physical torture. Soon, you will be able to perform torture on others_."

In the dream, Max felt blade cutting into her skin, the memory of the pain jolting her awake.

Max was breathing heavily. She got up as silently as possible, as to not disturb Ben and crept into Dean's room down the hall.

Even though Dean's light was off, Max could tell that he was awake.

Dean looked up and saw the distressed look on Max's face in the moonlight streaming in from the uncurtained window.

"What is it kiddo?" Dean asked, his voice croaking from disuse.

Now that Max was safely away from her nightmare, her self control broke away and a small sob wracked through her body. "I had a nightmare." She said in a small shaky voice.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Dean asked, giving Max the option of backing out if she wanted to. Knowing Max, her nightmares could rival his nightmares of Hell.

"It was about Manticore," Max said tearfully, trying to keep her voice down. "Lydecker. The torture. Receiving it and inflicting it."

Dean sighed, his tone full of sympathy. He gestured for Max to come sit on the bed beside him. Max let out a sob. Dean pulled her into his arms and Max wept into his shoulder. Dean shushed her softly, murmuring words of comfort, stroking her head gently.

Soon, Max cried herself to sleep, curling up into Dean's side, her head resting on his chest. Dean didn't have the heart to move her back to her own makeshift bed, so Dean let her stay there with him for the rest of the night. Maybe staying with him would help fend off the nightmares.

Dean smiled down at Max's sleeping face. She looked so peaceful and calm, Dean wished he could capture the image forever.

Dean loved Max, like she really was his daughter or little sister. He swore to God or whatever was out there that he would make the people who had done this to his Max pay.

* * *

><p>Max woke up the next morning to find that she wasn't in her bed on the floor in her own room. She began to panic when she realised that she was in Dean's room in his bed. Dean had returned to the room after brushing his teeth to see Max's slight fear. He moved towards the bed and rested a hand on her shoulder.<p>

"It's okay sweetheart, you're okay. You're in my room. You had a nightmare, but you're fine." Dean said, rubbing her shoulder in soothing motions. Max breathed out a sigh.

"You know, the others in my unit had a thing about feeling 'fine'. Fine meant 'freaked-out, insecure, neurotic and emotional'." Max said with a humourless chuckle. Dean smiled softly. "Thanks for letting me stay with you."

Dean grinned at her. "What are brothers for if not to hug after having a nightmare?" Dean said, pulling a t-shirt over his head having already mostly dressed when Max had been sleeping.

Max grinned back. "Exactly." She replied.

"Now go back to your room and get changed before Ben wakes up and wonders where you are." Dean said. As Max got up, Dean went to smack her lightly with his towel, but Max dodged it easily, laughing heartily.

"You'll have to be quicker than that!" Max called over her shoulder as she made her way back to her room.

* * *

><p>Dean was sick of being toyed with. He had decided to summon this thing, this Castiel, and figure out why it had freed him from Hell.<p>

Sam couldn't be there and Max knew why. He was with Ruby of course, probably chowing down on his blood. Max had resolved to tell Dean what Sam was doing, should they survive their meeting with Castiel. Max reasoned that if this thing had brought Dean back from Hell, it would be unlikely that it would kill him after going to all that effort. Nether the less, Dean, Bobby and Max covered the barn with sigils from all religions to ward against evil. Max had asked Ben not to come, but to follow Sam instead to make sure he was safe and didn't do any thing stupid.

Now, in hindsight, Max thought Castiel's entrance was so cool, even if she was a bit scared at the time. The salt rounds didn't work on the creature and neither did Ruby's knife. Castiel knocked Bobby out easily.

"Who are you?" Dean demanded.

"I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition." Castiel had replied.

Castiel turned to Max and stared at her for a moment. He attempted to knock her out, but it didn't work, he raised an eyebrow.

Castiel turned to Dean. "I had to talk to you alone, but if the child cannot be put to sleep, then she must stay, even if she is not quite..natural." Castiel said.

"Who are you?" Dean asked again after he determined that Bobby was indeed still alive.

"Castiel." Castiel replied.

"Yeah, I figured that much. I mean, what are you?" Dean asked, rising back to his feet.

Castiel turned and met Dean's gaze. "I am an Angel of the Lord." Castiel replied. Max gasped and her eyes widened.

"Get the Hell out of here. There's no such thing." Dean said. Castiel stepped closer to Dean.

"That's your problem Dean. You have not faith." Castiel replied, and Dean thought he could almost see a smile on the Angel's face. Suddenly, lightning flashed and the shadow of two huge wings appeared on the ceiling and walls behind Castiel, drawing all focus. Max scrambed away from the angel whilst Dean stood and watched in awe.

Dean scoffed. "Some angel you are. You burned out that poor woman's eyes!" Dean snapped.

Castiel sighed, almost looking guilty. "I warned her not to spy on my true form. It can be... overwhelming to humans, and so can my real voice. But you already knew that." Castiel replied.

Dean frowned. "You mean the gas station and the motel. That was you talking?" Dean asked. Castiel nodded. "Buddy, next time, lower the volume."

"That was my mistake. Certain people, special people, can perceive my true visage. I thought you would be one of them. I was wrong." Castiel said in a deep monotone.

"And what visage are you in now, huh? What, holy tax accountant?" Dean said sarcastically.

Castiel looked down at his body, as if this was only one of the few times he had seen it. "This? This is... a vessel." Castiel replied.

Dean's eyes widened. "You're possessing some poor bastard?" Dean said, surprised.

Castiel almost smiled again. "He's a devout man, he actually prayed for this." Castiel said, something close to amusment coloured his tone.

"Well, I'm not buying what you're selling, so who are you really?" Dean said.

Castiel frowned. "I told you." His head tilted in confusion.

Dean scoffed in disbelief. "Right. And why would an angel rescue me from Hell?"

Castiel stepped a little bit closer to Dean. "Good things do happen, Dean." Castiel replied.

Dean shook his head. "Not in my experience." He said.

Castiel moved even closer to Dean, their face quite close. "What's the matter?" The angel asked. He peered into Dean's face, a look of concentration gracing his features. "You don't think you deserve to be saved?"

"Why'd you do it?" Dean asked, still not really believing Castiel.

"Because God commanded it." Castiel said solemnly. "Because we have work for you."

* * *

><p>The trip back to Bobby's house was spent in silence. None of them talked about what happened with Castiel nor the things that was said when Bobby was unconscious.<p>

When they arrived back neither Sam or Ben were home. Max tugged on Dean's arm and led him to his room.

"I have something to tell you," Max said. "I have been wanting to tell you for quite some time, but you only got back a couple of days ago and I didn't want to overwhelm you."

"Slow down kid. Tell me what?" Dean asked, sitting down on the bed, proceeding to remove his boots.

"When you died, Sam went off the rails a bit. I mean, we all did, but especially him. He started hanging out with Ruby like, all the time. I caught them together, but not in a gross way, well, yes in a gross way but not the gross way that you're thinking, though I'm sure they have been doing that as well." Max said, beginning to ramble. Dean grabbed her wrist.

"You're rambling. You only do that when you're nervous. Slow down and tell me. What did you catch Sam and Ruby doing that wasn't sex?" Dean asked, looking her straight in the eyes.

"IcaughthimdrinkingRuby'sblood!" Max said, the sentence coming out in a rush.

* * *

><p><strong>The cat's out of the bag now! What will Dean's reaction be? Find out next chapter! Please review!<strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 12:

Dean's boot dropped to the floor with a dull thud. "He was _what_?" Dean exclaimed, shock colouring his tone. Max nodded slowly.

"From her wrist. It was gross. It gives him, well, power. He can do stuff with his mind when he drinks her blood. And he's…" Max trailed off. "Well, I don't like who he is when he's high on her blood. He's like an addict. He gets all irritable when he's having a craving."

Dean stared at Max, still in shock. "He's addicted to it?" Dean whispered in disbelief.

"Yes." Max replied.

"Do you know where he is?" Dean asked.

"Probably with Ruby," Max replied. "I sent Ben to follow them."

Dean grinned at her. "Awesome." Dean said. "Call Ben and ask him where he is and where Sam and Ruby are."

Max raised an eyebrow. "What are you going to do?" Max asked.

Dean winked, which was strange coming from someone incredibly angry. "Tough Love Detox. And then I'm gonna put this Ruby bitch in the ground!" Dean said, his anger returning slightly.

Ten minutes after Max made contact with Ben, Max and Dean made their way to where Sam and Ruby were.

Max and Ben talked to each other in code, using hand signals that Dean hadn't quite got the hang of yet. On the count of three, Dean, Ben and Max burst into the little shop when Sam was exorcising demons. Max grabbed Ruby's shoulders and Ben plunged Ruby's own knife into her gut, killing the demon. Dean grabbed Sam.

"Dean! What are you doing?" Sam screamed. Sam began to fight back. He punched Dean across the face, but before he could do anything else, Ben hit Sam on the back of the head with the butt of Ruby's knife. He dropped to the ground in a heap.

Ben and Max carried Sam and put him in the back of the Impala, sitting up. Ben sat beside him and Max sat in the front with Dean.

Max was secretly happy. Ruby was dead and her bad attitude could no longer influence Sam to a dark path any longer.

They drove back to Bobby's house in silence. The three of them managed to carry Sam down to the panic room. They put him on the bed that was in the centre of the room.

"Maybe we should tie him down?" Max suggested. "Just in case he hurts himself? We have no idea what demon blood withdrawal will do to him."

Dean nodded. "That's a good idea." Dean replied. They grabbed some of Bobby's leather ropes and strapped him down. Ben brought down a jug of water and a cup. He just shrugged when Dean looked at him questioningly.

The three of them left the room. Max leaned against the panic room door. "And now we wait." Max sighed.

Ben chuckled softly. "And now we wait." He agreed.

Dean patted Ben softly on the shoulder. "He'll be fine. Going cold turkey is better than trying to wean him off it." Dean said. With one last glance at the panic room door, he went back upstairs.

Max and Ben looked at each other. "I hope he's right." Max sighed.

Ben pushed off the wall and pulled Max into his arms, kissing the top of her head. "Of course he's right. He's Dean after all." Ben said. Max pulled away and smiled at Ben. Soon her smile turned into a frown. She began to tell Ben everything that had happened when they had summoned Castiel.

"So it didn't work? He couldn't knock you out?" Ben said at last.

Max chuckled. "After all that, the only part that sticks out to you is the fact that Castiel couldn't knock me out?" Max asked.

Ben grinned. "We all know that Dean is awesome and he can take care of himself. It's you that I'm concerned with." Ben said.

Max blushed slightly. "I can take care of myself too." Max said, meeting Ben's eye. "Why do you think he couldn't knock me out?"

Ben shrugged. "Maybe cos we're not normal like Dean and Bobby are. We're super-soldiers with animal DNA. That's probably why." Ben said.

Max still looked troubled. "Maybe that's not the only reason," Max said. "Think about it. Manticore has been kidnapping monsters to experiment on; what if they had been doing that the whole time? What if we have some sort of monster blood in our veins and that's why Castiel couldn't knock me out?"

Ben chuckled humourlessly. "I guess that means we're an abomination." Ben said. Max punched him lightly on the arm.

"I hope not." Max murmured. The silence that fell was shattered by the sound of Sam yelling Dean's name. "Here we go." Max added with a sigh.

The four of them, Bobby, Max, Ben and Dean, didn't sleep that night, Sam's screams piercing the night as the demon blood exited his system.

* * *

><p><strong>What do you think? Ruby is dead. Where do we go now? Will Sam survive the detox? Are Max and Ben made from more than just human and animal DNA? Keep reading if you want to find out! Please review! :D<strong>


	13. Chapter 13

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

* * *

><p><strong><span>One Little Difference<span>**

Chapter 13:

Max was sitting outside of the panic room, listening to Sam's weakened whimpering. Somehow, Max is able to sense the demon blood leaving Sam's body. Max just put that down to her ability to smell drugs on a person, so she assumed the demon blood was like a drug. She didn't even want to consider the possibility that she could sense it because she had monster DNA inside of her. Max knew that Sam was going to survive this. She could hear his heart beat slowly evening out and his vitals also slowly returning to normal. Max didn't say this to Dean, Ben or Bobby. She just told them that Sam was going to be all right.

Dean thought about asking how Max knew Sam was going to be all right as there was no lore on drying out a demon blood addict. Max would just bite her lip, which worried Dean as well, and tell him she just knew. Dean didn't ask any further than that and neither did Bobby, neither of them sure of the true extent of Max's abilities. Ben didn't say anything either. He trusted Max's judgement and he always will.

It was early morning two days after they had put Sam in the panic room. Max wearily opened the door after she sensed that Sam was asleep. Max gingerly sat on the bed next to him and began to wipe his face of dirt, sweat, blood and grime. Sam would need a proper shower soon or he was going to stink. Sam woke slightly, somewhere between reality and hallucination. Max helped him drink some water before lying him back down lightly on the pillow and leaving the panic room. Dean was waiting outside.

"How is he?" Dean asked, staring into Max's eyes.

Max shrugged. "He's still pretty out of it, but I think he's going to be okay," Max replied. "His vitals look good and his heart beat is almost back to normal. I'd say he will be back in his right mind by about this afternoon."

"This afternoon?" Dean questioned. "Are you sure?"

Max pursed her lips. "Well, Sam won't be under the effects of the demon blood. But who you will find in there, I'm not sure. Hopefully he will be the Sam you remember." Max replied. She rested a hand on Dean's shoulder before leaning up to kiss him softly on the cheek. "He's strong. He'll make it. He's got us remember?"

Dean smiled softly. "At least he's got us." Dean agreed.

* * *

><p>The wait for the afternoon was a slow worrying one, but Max just continued to smile as if she knew something the others didn't, which made Bobby raise an eyebrow, but he didn't comment.<p>

The hunters were silent, sitting in the library. Not long after one in the afternoon, Max rose to her feet and began to walk down into Bobby's basement. Dean and Bobby looked at each other before going after Max, Ben following them.

Max opened the door to the panic room and saw Sam was blinking awake. He looked like shit, but the demon blood was gone. Max rushed over to him and hugged him.

"Oh, God Sam!" Max cried into his shoulder. "I was so worried about you!"

Sam chuckled weakly. "Yeah, me too." Sam replied. Max hurried to untie him and Sam pulled her in for a proper hug. "I feel like I haven't seen you for months." He murmured back.

Max pulled away from the hug slightly. "Don't you remember anything?" Max asked softly, feeling his forehead for a temperature.

Sam shrugged, leaning against his pillow. "It's blurry. I mean I can remember, but it doesn't, didn't feel like me. Like I was there but I couldn't control myself. I kept making stupid decisions and I couldn't stop myself." Sam replied. He rubbed his eyes. "I am so tired. And really hungry."

Max laughed softly. "At least you're alive to feel it at all." Max replied. She rose to her feet and kissed him on the forehead. "You stay right there and I'll get you some food." She walked passed Dean, Bobby and Ben, who had been loitering in the doorway.

Dean stepped into the room. "How're you feeling Sammy?" Dean asked.

Sam chuckled. "Like shit." Sam replied. "This is worse than a hangover, minus the feeling like I'm gonna vomit."

Dean grimaced. "Dude! Too much information!" Dean said, taking a step back from Sam.

"Well, it's good to see you're okay, son." Bobby said. He walked over and squeezed Sam's shoulder. "Now don't you go and do something so stupid again!"

Sam gripped Bobby's hand for a second. He smiled slightly. "I won't Bobby." Sam replied.

Bobby huffed. "Good. Now I've got work to do. Let Max look after you for a while, then get out of bed. We still need to find a way to kill Lilith." Bobby said, walking out of the panic room. He rested a hand on Ben's shoulder, leading him away.

"It's good to see you back to normal Sam!" Ben called from over his shoulder, leaving Sam alone with Dean.

Sam chuckled. "Thanks Ben!" Sam called back.

Dean sat down on the bed beside Sam. He patted Sam lightly on the back. There was silence for a few moments.

"So, the blood was kind of controlling you?" Dean asked. Sam shrugged.

"Yeah, it was." Sam said.

Dean sighed. "How did you start drinking it in the first place, if you didn't choose it?" Dean asked softly, looked Sam in the eye.

Sam met Dean's eyes. "It… Look, I didn't choose to start drinking it." Sam said. "Ruby and I, we were fighting a demon. I was hurt, badly. Ruby managed to kill it, but I was dying. She slit her wrist open and she fed me some of her blood. I didn't know what it was. From that moment on, the blood had me. It was controlling me. Making me do things, thing in my right mind, I would never do."

Dean nodded. "Well." Dean said after a moment. "At least the bitch is dead."

Sam chuckled slightly. "Who killed her?" Sam asked, glancing at Dean.

Dean paused for a moment. "Max and Ben. It was a team effort." Dean replied.

"The dynamic duo." Sam murmured, as if lost in thought.

Dean raised an eyebrow. "You are okay, yeah? I mean you were, uh, _with_ Ruby. Even if she was hooking you on something that was evil." Dean asked.

Sam sighed. "I guess I had feelings for her, but I don't know if they were my feeling or if they were created by the demon blood." Sam ran his hand through his hair. "I don't know any more Dean. I just don't know."

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><p><strong>What do you think? I hope you enjoyed! Please review! :D<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>One Little Difference<strong>

Chapter 14:

They were trying to find a way to find Lilith and kill her once and for all. Sam was still a little off his game, but he was getting there. Not truly being himself for months, not being in complete control over himself and thrown Sam a huge degree. A lot of shit had gone down in the last few months since Sam had become demon blood free. Dean had been quite for quite some time, not really his usual 'happy' self. Anna was an angel again. The stuff with Samhain had not been fun, for any of those involved. Max and Uriel had had a huge sass off and Castiel had stood in the background, rolling his eyes. It was clear that Max and Uriel didn't get along, which amused Dean, because he hated Uriel as well.

A few days after all Anna had become an angel again, Max was looking through some books when she found the spell she had been searching for.

"I've found a locator spell for Lilith," Max said, grinning at the hunters.

They stared at her. "How? All of the ones we've found are useless." Bobby said, looking up from one of his books. Max grinned at him. She picked up an extremely detailed map of the U.S, a candle and a book and proceeded to walk outside.

Dean shrugged at the other three and followed Max. She had put the map on the hood of an old car that was going to be sold for scrap. Once everyone was outside, Max began chanting words in Aramaic. She lit the candle and held it to each corner of the map. She finished the spell and the fire began to spread.

"Relax," Max said when Dean flashed her a worried look. "The fire is our friend."

Soon the fire had burnt the entire map except for one spot, Ilchester, Maryland.

Suddenly, there was the flapping of wings. Castiel and the douche bag Uriel appeared. Saying they needed Dean's help. To torture the demon Alistair.

Uriel glared at Max. She glared straight back. "What are you looking at?" Max snapped.

Uriel let out a derisive laugh. "At you, little insect." He replied. "Quite the abomination."

Max raised an eyebrow. "I may be an abomination, but at least I'm not a dick. Like you." Max replied, a sneer of her own.

"Show me some respect, little one, or I will smite you all the way to Hell." Uriel said, smiling condescendingly at her.

Max rolled her eyes. "Oh, please! I've already been there." Max replied. "But you try and smite me, I'll kill you."

Uriel grinned at her. "I'd like to see you try girl." He replied. He moved forward and rested a hand on Max's head, quicker than anyone could stop him. He seemed to be trying to smite her, but nothing was happening. Max pushed him off her, and glared at him.

"So, I guess you can't smite me! I wonder why that is?" Max said, smirking at Uriel.

"That's impossible." Castiel gasped from somewhere beside them.

"You know, I read somewhere, that only an angel can kill another angel. Is that true, Uriel?" Max asked, still smirking at Uriel.

Uriel's eyes widened. "How did you know that?" Uriel asked, shocked into speaking. Castiel turned to Uriel.

"What do you mean by that Uriel?" Castiel asked. "Are you saying that the murders of our brothers and sisters is the work of a fellow angel?"

Uriel grinned at Castiel. "Only the ones who wouldn't join me." Uriel replied.

Castiel's eyes narrowed and his angel blade slid down his sleeve and into his hands. "You've been killing the angels." Castiel said.

"Come on Cas! You know God isn't up there! Maybe the Apocalypse wouldn't be so bad. Then it would all be over. We wouldn't have to deal with these mud monkeys." Uriel said, almost pleading with Castiel.

"You are blaspheming. The humans are our Father's creation. You must be punished, for murdering our brothers and sisters and for conspiring to bring about Armageddon." Castiel said in a monotone voice. Uriel also lowered his blade into his hand.

"I'm sorry it had to end this way Castiel. Goodbye." Uriel said. Suddenly, he lunged at Castiel, but Castiel easily side-stepped him. Angel blade met angel blade with a loud grind. The hunters stepped back quickly, not wanting to get in the way of this fight.

Uriel had picked up a big metal pipe in his other hand and used it to smash Castiel to the ground. Uriel began punching Castiel across the face in earnest.

"There is no wrath! There is no Will!" Uriel yelled. "There is no God!"

Suddenly, a blade went straight through Uriel's throat. Dean gasped when he saw it was Anna.

"Maybe, maybe not." Anna said in his ear. "But there's still me."

She withdrew her blade from his neck and Uriel fell to his knees. A burst of light shone through the car-yard as Uriel died. His wings blackened on the ground, the outline of each feather stark against the brown gravel.

Anna turned to Castiel. She smiled softly. "Don't lose faith Castiel. You were always the best of us." She said, and with a flutter of wings, she was gone again.

Castiel rose to his feet and spat some blood out of his mouth. He turned to the five hunters behind him. "I better go and kill Alistair then, since his is of no use anymore." Castiel said, and with that, he was also gone.

Silence fell over the group of hunters, none of them knowing what to say. Dean broke the silence first.

"Well, that was weird." Dean said, looking at the others. He then turned to Max. "How did you know that he couldn't smite you?"

Max shrugged. "Well, I assumed that when Castiel couldn't knock me out, I thought it was the same with the smiting. I am immune to the Angel's wrath!" Max replied with a giggle.

Dean frowned. "So you didn't know, not for sure." Dean said, his tone sounding a little strained.

Max raised an eyebrow. "I sensed there was something off with Uriel. He was lying a little too well, a little too objective of us humans. I had to find out what he was up to." Max replied. "Besides, if he had smited me, Castiel would have just brought me back. Angels have healing power and all that."

Dean sighed. "Still, that was really reckless of you." Dean said.

Max rolled her eyes. "Sorry _dad_, I thought he might want to kill us all! Better me than the rest of you, right? There's probably about 6 of me in the world, so one less clone wouldn't be any loss!" Max spat and she turned and headed back towards the house.

Bobby sighed. "She definitely has some self-esteem issues to work out." Bobby said. He turned to Ben. "Help me dig a grave for this dick, son."

Ben looked wistfully at the house, as if he wanted to go after Max. He sighed and turned back to Bobby. "Sure." He replied. They headed to the outbuilding to grab some shovels, leaving Sam and Dean along together.

"She was being reckless, wasn't she?" Dean asked, looking as Sam, worry filling his face.

Sam nodded slowly, but then he grinned. "Not anymore then you are," Sam said. "Come on! Tell me you wouldn't've done exactly the same thing if you were in her place!"

Dean's face cracked into a half-smile. "I guess. She's turned out a lot like me." Dean said. "It's funny how Ben has sort of turned out more like you than me, and he's my clone."

Sam chuckled softly. "Well, that's genetics for you. Technically, Ben is my brother as much as he is your clone. I'm not surprised he's a bit like me. You're a bit like me in some ways and I'm a bit like you." Sam replied. "We're family, Dean."

Dean snorted. "Hold me Sammy that was beautiful." Dean said sarcastically, grinning at his brother.

"Jerk."

"Bitch."

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><p><strong>What do you think? Please review! :D<strong>


	15. Chapter 15

**What if it had've been Sam and Dean that found Max, not Hannah? How much would that one little difference have to Max's life? Warnings listed inside. Slightly AU 'The Pulse'**

**Okay, this is my first crossover fanfiction.**

**In this the Pulse didn't happen on such a large scale, it just wiped out New York and Boston. Max never meets Logan, but if they do, it's under completely different circumstances. Possible pairing of Max with one of the other X5's. Haven't decided on who yet.**

**Warnings: Trigger warnings: PTSD, flash backs, abuse, violence, torture. Swearing.**

**Max's heats will begin in 2014 when she is 17. It's only about 2010ish, so she won't have them for a while. I think 13 is a bit young for a girl to have heats.**

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><p><strong><span>One Little Difference<span>**

Chapter 15:

Dean found Max sitting on her bed. She had started sleeping in it since she had stayed the night with Dean when she had had a nightmare. She had seemed to want to get used to it.

Bobby had decided to give Ben his own room, meaning Sam had to move down into the panic room. He didn't mind. Sam said he felt safe down there and was happy to give Ben the room Sam had been staying in. Bobby didn't think it was appropriate for two nearly 13-year-olds to be sleeping in the same room, especially since they were not the same gender. Not that Bobby thought either of them would do anything inappropriate, it was just that they were both growing teenagers who needed privacy. Max felt a bit strange having her own room after sharing for so long.

Dean sat down next to Max. "I know you don't want to talk about it. I know you wanna bottle it all up. But after a while, you're just going to explode. I know, I speak from experience." Dean said. He sighed. "I just want you to know, that even though what you did was reckless… I probably would have done the exact same thing if I was in your place."

Max looked up and smiled at Dean. She rested her head on his shoulder. "Thanks Dean." Max whispered, her eyes falling closed.

"You are very important to us, to me. I don't care that you're a clone. You are your own person, and… I love you." Dean said. "You are like a sister or a daughter to me, so don't think for a second that the world would be better off with you gone, because I know for a fact that it wouldn't. It would suck."

Max met Dean's gaze, her eyes watering slightly. "I don't know why I am so emotional. I don't get it." Max said. Dean pulled her into his arms for a comforting hug.

"It's all part of growing up, darling," Dean said. "Your hormones are going crazy."

Max chuckled watery. "I hope not. I'm not sure how my human hormones are going to mess with my animal ones." Max said softly.

Dean raised an eyebrow. "You said that you had cat DNA. You're not going to like, go spontaneously into heat or anything, are you?" Dean asked, blushing as he glanced at Max.

Max simply shrugged. "I'm not sure. I guess since I've started having my period, I might start having heats." Max said, then she shivered. "That's gonna suck."

Dean chuckled. "I bet it will." Dean replied, kissing the top of Max's head. "Alright, go to sleep. We have a big day of hunting Lilith to do tomorrow."

Max chuckled. "We sure do." Max said, smiling softly at Dean. "You know what Dean, I wish I had killed Uriel."

Dean paused. "That's not something you should wish for." Dean replied. "You shouldn't want to kill, even if it was a douche bag like Uriel. He's not worth it." Dean got up and headed for the door.

Max didn't reply, seeming to ponder Dean's words.

"Night kiddo." Dean said, shutting the door behind him.

Max sighed, staring at the closed door before changing into her pyjamas and going to bed.

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><p>Dean woke up early the next morning, at 7am, to the sound of voices from downstairs. Bobby was talking to none other than Jo Harvelle.<p>

Jo looked up and grinned at Dean. "Hiya Dean," Jo said.

Dean laughed softly and walked towards her. "Hey Jo," Dean replied. Jo's smile slipped off her face and she slapped him.

"Thanks for telling me that you're alive!" Jo fumed. "Oh, wait! You didn't! Bastard!" Jo slapped him again, albeit, not as hard.

Dean's rubbed his cheek and adjusted his jaw. "What's with people hitting me when they find out that I'm alive?" Dean muttered under his breath. "It's nice to see you again too, Jo."

Jo sighed and pulled Dean in for a hug. "I'm sorry I hit you, but you piss me off sometimes." Jo said.

Dean pulled back and grinned at Jo. "That's why you love me!" Dean said, winking.

Jo laughed and punched Dean playfully on the shoulder.

Max ran back inside from her morning run and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Jo.

Jo turned and raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You're that girl from that all night shopping mart." Jo said, smiling bemusedly at Max.

Max blushed. "Yeah, I am. Thank you for the help during that particularly mortifying experience." Max said.

Jo waved her off. "Nothing to be ashamed of. It's not our fault men can't deal with it. It's not like they have to go through it." Jo said, sending a pointed glare at Dean.

Max chuckled. "They're lucky." Max replied.

Bobby cleared his throat. "If you two girls are done gabbing, we have some work to do." Bobby said, looking at the three young hunters. "Now, we have the location of Lilith. It's an old Convent that got shut down because apparently a priest went postal on some nuns."

Jo nodded her agreement. "Rumour has it that that is where Lucifer is supposed to make his big stage appearance, where the Cage opens." Jo replied. "The only reason I can think that Lilith would be there would be to somehow open the Cage and set Lucifer free."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, if Lilith breaks all 66 seals, Lucifer will be set free. She hasn't broken them all though, has she?" Dean asked, looking at Bobby.

Bobby shrugged. "Ask your angel friend Castiel." Bobby replied.

Dean sighed. "I guess I'd better go make a call then." Dean said, walking outside.

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><p>There was a haunting happening and Dean, needing a break from Armageddon, decided to take the case.<p>

What Dean did not expect was to find the author of books that were all about his life. Everything was in them, from sleeping with Cassie, to finding Max on the side of the road. Dean was glad that the book didn't name where they actually were or even their last names, or Manticore would have found Max and Ben in a second.

Chuck was shocked to find out that it was all real. He thought himself some kind of God, though Dean had scoffed at the idea. Luckily, Castiel showed up to tell them what was really going on, that Chuck was a Prophet of God.

Sam rolled his eyes at Castiel and Dean. They were having another one of their staring contests. Sam just wanted them to fuck each other and have it over with, because frankly, it was getting annoying, though Sam didn't point this fact out.

The idea that these books would one day be called the Winchester Gospel amused Sam, even though he thought the whole idea was ridiculous. Sam wondered, after reading the books, as to why Max was immune to the Angels smiting her or knocking her unconscious. The books also mentioned her worry that she didn't just have animal blood in her veins, but monster blood too, maybe even demon. Sam shook his head at that. Angels were able to smite demons, so to Sam, that theory was out the window. Perhaps Max was just special. Sam definitely didn't want to see if Ben was just as special, in case he wasn't. Max had mentioned what felt like years ago, that each X5 responded differently to the cocktail. Though their abilities were similar, Max and Ben were still different genetically due to the human factor. Plus, their animal DNA was different too. Sam sighed, wishing his life wasn't so complicated.

"Sam," Chuck said, moving towards him. "I had a vision. Of you and Lilith having, well, sex."

Sam recoiled instantly. "What?" Sam exclaimed. "I would never have sex with her! Not in a million years. She's a little girl."

Chuck shook his head. "Not this time. She's taken the form of a comely dental hygienist from Bloomington, Illinois." Chuck replied.

Sam scoffed. "Whatever! I still wouldn't do it!" Sam snapped.

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Ruby!" Dean said, masking the word with a cough.

Sam gave Dean one of his famous bitch faces. "That's not the same thing. I was under the influence of her demon blood." Sam replied.

Dean shrugged. "Fair enough."

Sam sighed. "Do you at least know why I was doing it?" Sam asked.

Chuck shrugged. "I think you were making a deal of some kind, but I haven't seen enough yet." Chuck said.

Sam raised his hands in defeat. "Screw this! I'm going back to Bobby's. I defy prophecy." Sam said, picking up his jacket and turning towards the door.

Dean looked back at Castiel and Chuck and shrugged. "He's got a point. We don't have to fulfil prophecy if we just ignore it." Dean said, following Sam to the door.

They went back to their motel to stay the night when they found Lilith there waiting for them, Ruby's knife in her hands.

"Hello boys." She said, grinning at them.

"What do you want?" Sam spat.

"Silly goose," Lilith said, a look of mock innocence crossing her face. "You know what I want."

"To make a deal?" Sam said, glaring at the demon.

She smiled again. "Indeed. But have you thought to consider what I'm offering?" She asked.

Sam turned to Dean, his expression clearly saying 'find a way out of this situation while I stall her'. Dean nodded subtly, letting Sam know he had understood.

'_Cas?_' Dean asked silently in his head. '_You were hinting before about how to stop Lilith, if only temporarily. Could you perhaps send Chuck here, now? Lilith is in our motel room_.'

"If you let me kill you and Dean, I will call off the Apocalypse. No more death, no more suffering. Would you do that Sam? Sacrifice yourself and your brother to save the world?" Lilith asked, smiling coyly at Sam.

Sam sneered at Lilith. "I doubt you would keep that promise once we were dead. If anything, the Angels or Lucifer would bring me back to life and we would have accomplished nothing." Sam said. "So you know what Lilith, screw you!"

A few moments later, Chuck burst through the door. Lilith took one look at Chuck and the light of the Archangel shining through the window.

"I guess that's my cue to leave." Lilith said. She winked at Sam and then she was gone, taking Ruby's knife with her.

The Holy Light began to recede and the three men looked at each other in disbelief. "We're still alive, yeah?" Dean asked, frowning as he looked around the room.

"Yeah, I think so." Sam said. "I can't believe we survived."

Dean grinned. "Well, we know one thing for certain." Dean said, looking at Sam and Chuck.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Lilith is scared." Dean said. "Otherwise, why try and make a deal?"

Sam chuckled. "Good point." Sam replied. "Can we go back to Bobby's now?"

Dean laughed. "Nope. Put those hex bags up. We'll go in the morning."

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><p>"So what did you find out?" Bobby asked Jo when Ben and Max had gone to bed.<p>

Jo sighed. "Not as much as I would have liked," Jo replied. "All I know is that Max is special. More than any other of the X5's. Something about her not having any junk DNA. You said she was immune to angels?"

Bobby nodded. "That's right. They can't knock her out or smite her." Bobby replied.

Jo raised an eyebrow. "That makes her quite the player." Jo noted. She sighed. "All I could find out, by pulling a few special favours is that the man who founded Manticore had some big plans for Max."

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><p><strong>What do you think? I myself am a little sad that Max didn't kill Uriel, but I like how Dean made her feel differently about not have killed Uriel. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this one. I can't wait for the next chapter. I might not be able to write for a while. School is starting up again and I am buried in work. Maybe in a few days :)<strong>


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